Unconventional Monetary Policies in the Eurozone: Considering Theoretical Backgrounds and Policy Outcomes

Global Financial Crisis erupted as a sub-prime mortgage market crisis in US and became a full-fledged global crisis after the fall of Lehman Brothers. Thus, the effects of financial crisis spread to all over the world. In the Eurozone, the financial crisis became more challenging as it provoked the sovereign debt problems of some countries and triggered a sovereign debt crisis. Sovereign Debt Crisis was the first crisis in the Eurozone after forming a monetary union and put the viability of the union under risk. In this tranquil environment, European Central Bank (ECB) responded the crisis with set of monetary policy tools- conventional and unconventional. ECB pursued unconventional monetary policy parallel to its conventional monetary policy tool- policy rate. It provided liquidity support to markets, purchase public and private assets and guide markets about future short-term interest rates in the context of unconventional monetary policy. The aims of using these policies are similar for all central banks: alleviating the financial market tensions and stimulating aggregate demand. This study evaluated the effectiveness of these policies on the basis of these aims. The study finds out that ECB has been effective on depressing the financial market stress but ECB has not been effective on stimulating the aggregate demand.