IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v87y2021i4p1152-1174.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Federal Reserve's response to the COVID‐19 contraction: An initial appraisal

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolás Cachanosky
  • Bryan P. Cutsinger
  • Thomas L. Hogan
  • William J. Luther
  • Alexander W. Salter

Abstract

We provide an initial assessment of the Federal Reserve's policy response to the COVID‐19 contraction. We briefly review the historical episode and consider the standard textbook treatment of a pandemic on the macroeconomy. We summarize and then evaluate the Fed's monetary and emergency lending policies through the end of 2020. We credit the Fed with promoting monetary stability while maintaining that it could have done more. We argue that the Fed could have achieved stability without employing its emergency lending facilities. Although some facilities likely helped to promote general liquidity, others were primarily intended to allocate credit, which blurs the line between monetary and fiscal policy. These credit allocation facilities were unwarranted and unwise.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolás Cachanosky & Bryan P. Cutsinger & Thomas L. Hogan & William J. Luther & Alexander W. Salter, 2021. "The Federal Reserve's response to the COVID‐19 contraction: An initial appraisal," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1152-1174, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:87:y:2021:i:4:p:1152-1174
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12498
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12498
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12498?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sims, Eric R., 2012. "Taylor rules and technology shocks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 92-95.
    2. Virgil Henry Storr & Stefanie Haeffele & Jordan K. Lofthouse & Laura E. Grube, 2021. "Essential or not? Knowledge problems and COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home orders," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1229-1249, April.
    3. Jens H. E. Christensen & Jose A. Lopez & Glenn D. Rudebusch, 2010. "Inflation Expectations and Risk Premiums in an Arbitrage-Free Model of Nominal and Real Bond Yields," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(s1), pages 143-178, September.
    4. Blau, Benjamin M. & Brough, Tyler J. & Thomas, Diana W., 2013. "Corporate lobbying, political connections, and the bailout of banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3007-3017.
    5. Dutkowsky, Donald H. & VanHoose, David D., 2017. "Interest on reserves, regime shifts, and bank behavior," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1-15.
    6. Goolsbee, Austan & Syverson, Chad, 2021. "Fear, lockdown, and diversion: Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    7. Benjamin M. Blau, 2017. "Lobbying, political connections and emergency lending by the Federal Reserve," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 333-358, September.
    8. Richard E. Wagner, 1977. "Economic Manipulation For Political Profit: Macroeconomic Consequences And Constitutional Implications," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 395-410, August.
    9. William J. Luther & J. P. McElyea, 2018. "Austrian Macroeconomics in Search of Its Uniqueness," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 33(Summer 20), pages 1-20.
    10. Abishek Choutagunta & G. P. Manish & Shruti Rajagopalan, 2021. "Battling COVID‐19 with dysfunctional federalism: Lessons from India," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1267-1299, April.
    11. Per L. Bylund & Mark D. Packard, 2021. "Separation of power and expertise: Evidence of the tyranny of experts in Sweden's COVID‐19 responses," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1300-1319, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raymond J. March, 2021. "The FDA and the COVID‐19: A political economy perspective," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1210-1228, April.
    2. Louis Rouanet & Peter Hazlett, 2023. "The redistributive politics of monetary policy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 1-26, January.
    3. Thomas L. Hogan, 2022. "The calculus of dissent: Bias and diversity in FOMC projections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 105-135, April.
    4. Allen, Kyle D. & Baig, Ahmed & Winters, Drew B., 2023. "The response of money market funds to the COVID-19 pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    5. Kilci, Esra & Yilanci, Veli, 2022. "Impact of Monetary Aggregates on Consumer Behavior: A Study on the Policy Response of the Federal Reserve against COVID-19," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 29(1).
    6. Cachanosky, Nicolás & Salter, Alexander W. & Savanti, Ignacio, 2022. "Can dollarization constrain a populist leader? The case of Rafael Correa in Ecuador," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 430-442.
    7. Daniel J. Smith, 2023. "Austrian economics as a relevant research program," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 501-514, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexander W. Salter & William J. Luther, 2019. "Adaptation and central banking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 243-256, September.
    2. Peter T. Leeson & Louis Rouanet, 2021. "Externality and COVID‐19," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1107-1118, April.
    3. Bryan P. Cutsinger & Alexander Marsella & Yang Zhou, 2022. "Insuring legislative wealth transfers: theory and evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 127-144, July.
    4. Vuk Vukovic, 2021. "The politics of bailouts: Estimating the causal effects of political connections on corporate bailouts during the 2008–2009 US financial crisis," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 213-238, October.
    5. Giampaolo Garzarelli & Lyndal Keeton & Aldo A. Sitoe, 2022. "Rights redistribution and COVID-19 lockdown policy," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 5-36, August.
    6. David J. Hebert & Michael D. Curry, 2022. "Optimal lockdowns," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 263-274, December.
    7. ByBenjamin M. Blau & Todd G. Griffith & Ryan J. Whitby, 2022. "Lobbying and lending by banks around the financial crisis by," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 377-397, September.
    8. William F. Shughart II & Josh T. Smith, 2020. "The broken bridge of public finance: majority rule, earmarked taxes and social engineering," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 315-338, June.
    9. Peter Boettke & Benjamin Powell, 2021. "The political economy of the COVID‐19 pandemic," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 87(4), pages 1090-1106, April.
    10. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    11. Couch, Kenneth A. & Fairlie, Robert W. & Xu, Huanan, 2020. "Early evidence of the impacts of COVID-19 on minority unemployment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    12. Shun-Yang Lee & Julian Runge & Daniel Yoo & Yakov Bart & Anett Gyurak & J. W. Schneider, 2023. "COVID-19 Demand Shocks Revisited: Did Advertising Technology Help Mitigate Adverse Consequences for Small and Midsize Businesses?," Papers 2307.09035, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    13. Ed Westerhout & Ona Ciocyte, 2017. "The role of inflation-linked bonds," CPB Discussion Paper 344, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Qiuhong Zhao, 2016. "Do Political Connections Affect Bank Loan Loss Provision Reliability?," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 5(3), pages 118-118, August.
    15. Juan C. Palomino & Juan G. Rodríguez & Raquel Sebastian, 2023. "The COVID-19 shock on the labour market: poverty and inequality effects across Spanish regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(5), pages 814-828, May.
    16. Abdul‐Rahman Khokhar & Hesam Shahriari, 2022. "Is the SEC captured? Evidence from political connectedness and SEC enforcement actions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2725-2756, June.
    17. Güler, Mustafa Haluk & Keleş, Gürsu & Polat, Tandoğan, 2017. "An empirical decomposition of the liquidity premium in breakeven inflation rates," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 185-192.
    18. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln & Dirk Krueger & André Kurmann & Etienne Lalé & Alexander Ludwig & Irina Popova, 2023. "The Fiscal and Welfare Effects of Policy Responses to the Covid-19 School Closures," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 71(1), pages 35-98, March.
    19. Marcello Pericoli, 2012. "Expected inflation and inflation risk premium in the euro area and in the United States," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 842, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    20. Xiao Chen & Hanwei Huang & Jiandong Ju & Ruoyan Sun & Jialiang Zhang, 2022. "Endogenous cross-region human mobility and pandemics," CEP Discussion Papers dp1860, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:87:y:2021:i:4:p:1152-1174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.