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Why Money Announcements Move Interest Rates: An Answer from the Foreign Exchange Market

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  • Charles Engel
  • Jeffrey A. Frankel

Abstract

On a Friday that the Fed announces a money supply greater than had been anticipated, interest rates move up in response. Why? One explanation is that the market perceives the fluctuation in the moneystock as an unintended deviation from the Fed's target growth rate that will be reversed in subsequent periods. The anticipation of this future tightening drives up interest rates today. A second explanation is that the market perceives the increase in the money supply as signalling a higher target growth rate. The expected future inflation rate rises,which is reflected in a higher nominal Interest rate.This paper offers grounds for choosing between the two possible explanations: evidence from the exchange market. Under the first explanation, anticipated future tightening, one would expect the dollar to appreciate against foreign currencies. Under the second explanation,expected inflation, one would expect it to depreciate. We render these claims more concrete by a formal model, a generalization of the Dornbusch overshooting model. Then we use the mark/dollar rate toanswer the question. We find a statistically significant tendency for the dollar to appreciate following positive money supply surprises.This supports the first explanation.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Engel & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1982. "Why Money Announcements Move Interest Rates: An Answer from the Foreign Exchange Market," NBER Working Papers 1049, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:1049
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    1. repec:bla:scandj:v:78:y:1976:i:2:p:200-224 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Fama, Eugene F, 1975. "Short-Term Interest Rates as Predictors of Inflation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 269-282, June.
    3. Frankel, Jeffrey A, 1979. "On the Mark: A Theory of Floating Exchange Rates Based on Real Interest Differentials," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(4), pages 610-622, September.
    4. Dornbusch, Rudiger, 1976. "Expectations and Exchange Rate Dynamics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1161-1176, December.
    5. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-438, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. R. Dornbusch, 1982. "Equilibrium and Disequilibrium Exchange Rates," Working papers 309, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    2. Frankel, Jeffrey & Saiki, Ayako, 2016. "Does It Matter If Statistical Agencies Frame the Month's CPI Report on a 1-Month or 12-Month Basis?," Working Paper Series 16-011, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    3. John H. Makin & Vito Tanzi, 1983. "The Level and Volatility of Interest Rates in the United States: The Roles of Expected Inflation, Real Rates, and Taxes," NBER Working Papers 1167, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sahminan, Sahminan, 2007. "Financial Market Responses to Bank Indonesia’s Policy Announcements," MPRA Paper 93401, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Andreas Fischer, 1989. "Interpreting the Term Structure of Interest Rates Using Weekly Money Announcements," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 125(I), pages 43-53, March.
    6. Robert G. King & Bharat Trehan, 1983. "The Implications of an Endogenous Money Supply for Monetary Neutrality," NBER Working Papers 1175, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. V. Vance Roley & Carl E. Walsh, 1985. "Monetary Policy Regimes, Expected Inflation, and the Response of Interest Rates to Money Announcements," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 100(Supplemen), pages 1011-1039.
    8. Papell, David H., 1984. "Activist monetary policy and exchange-rate overshooting: The Deutsche mark/dollar rate," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 293-310, December.
    9. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Gikas A. Hardouvelis, 1983. "Commodity Prices, Overshooting, Money Surprises, and Fed Credibility," NBER Working Papers 1121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Kearney, Adrienne A., 1996. "The effect of changing monetary policy regimes on stock prices," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 429-447.
    11. Richard Hartman & John H. Makin, 1982. "Inflation Uncertainty and Interest Rates: Theory and Empirical Tests," NBER Working Papers 0906, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Goldberg, Michael D. & Frydman, Roman, 1996. "Empirical exchange rate models and shifts in the co-integrating vector," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 55-78, March.
    13. Robert J. Shiller & John Y. Campbell & Kermit L. Schoenholtz, 1983. "Forward Rates and Future Policy: Interpreting the Term Structure of Interest Rates," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 14(1), pages 173-224.

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