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The Fed And The Political Business Cycle

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  • NATHANIEL BECK

Abstract

This study asks whether the Federal Reserve has actively made monetary policy so as to aid the president's reelection. Using Shiller's smoothness “prior” to estimate the shape of cycles, the study finds a political business cycle in unemployment and a preelection increase in growth of the money supply. But the timing of these two cycles is inconsistent. Furthermore, little evidence exists of a cycle in the instruments of monetary policy. Thus, the Fed is not actively creating a political business cycle. Apparently, movements in real money that are not caused—but are not offset—by the Fed are an important cause of the political business cycle. Elections influence Fed behavior. Monetary tightness occurs early in a presidential term, before reelection incentives become critical. This is due to the Fed's political weakness. Thus, the Fed's independence only partly insulates it from electoral pressures.

Suggested Citation

  • Nathaniel Beck, 1991. "The Fed And The Political Business Cycle," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 9(1), pages 25-38, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:9:y:1991:i:1:p:25-38
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1991.tb00311.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alesina, Alberto & Sachs, Jeffrey, 1988. "Political Parties and the Business Cycle in the United States, 1948-1984," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 20(1), pages 63-82, February.
    2. Shiller, Robert J, 1973. "A Distributed Lag Estimator Derived from Smoothness Priors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(4), pages 775-788, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Rob Roy McGregor, 1996. "Fomc Voting Behavior And Electoral Cycles: Partisan Ideology And Partisan Loyalty," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 17-32, March.
    2. O. David Gulley & Jahangir Sultan, 2011. "Economics, politics and the federal funds markets: does the Fed play politics?," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(14), pages 1005-1019.
    3. Leertouwer, Erik & Maier, Philipp, 2001. "Who creates political business cycles: should central banks be blamed?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 445-463, September.

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