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The Macroeconomic Effects of the Federal Reserve's Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policies

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  • Eric T. Swanson

Abstract

I separately identify and estimate the effects of the Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate, forward guidance, and large-scale asset purchase (LSAP) policies on the U.S. economy. I extend the high-frequency identification strategy of Bauer and Swanson (2023b) for monetary policy VARs by allowing each of the above policies to have possibly different economic effects. I follow Swanson (2021) and Swanson and Jayawickrema (2023) to separately identify federal funds rate, forward guidance, and LSAP components of monetary policy announcements using high-frequency interest rate changes around FOMC announcements, post- FOMC press conferences, FOMC meeting minutes releases, and speeches and testimony by the Fed Chair and Vice Chair. I find that changes in the federal funds rate have had the most powerful effects on the U.S. economy, followed by forward guidance and, lastly, LSAPs.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric T. Swanson, 2023. "The Macroeconomic Effects of the Federal Reserve's Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policies," NBER Working Papers 31603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31603
    Note: EFG ME
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    Cited by:

    1. Jiang, Shifu, 2024. "The effect of monetary policies on inflation: A fiscal perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    2. Lendy Banegas & Fredy Vides, 2025. "Stochastically Structured Reservoir Computers for Financial and Economic System Identification," Papers 2507.17115, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2025.
    3. Bundick, Brent & Herriford, Trenton & Smith, A. Lee, 2024. "The Term Structure of Monetary Policy Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Georgiadis, Georgios & Jarociński, Marek, 2025. "Global spillovers from multi-dimensional US monetary policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Sergei K. Egiev, 2025. "Liquidity Traps: A Unified Theory of the Great Depression and the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1424-1551, December.
    6. Garcia-Revelo, José & Levieuge, Grégory & Sahuc, Jean-Guillaume, 2025. "Revisiting 15 years of unusual transatlantic monetary policies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    7. R. Anton Braun & Daisuke Ikeda, 2025. "Monetary Policy Over the Lifecycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 56, April.
    8. Itamar Caspi & Amit Friedman & Sigal Ribon, 2024. "Shocks and Currents: Monetary Policy and Israel’s Foreign Exchange Market," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 66(3), pages 454-481, September.
    9. Wilhelm, Stefan, 2023. "Efficiency of short-time work schemes and the role of monetary policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Benjamin Baker & Murat Üngör, 2025. "Effects of Quantitative Easing on Economic Sentiment: Evidence from Three Large Economies," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 67(1), pages 50-83, March.
    11. Wang, Jialing & Eom, Young Ho & Jang, Woon Wook, 2024. "Stock market responses to unconventional monetary policy shocks," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    12. Kerssenfischer, Mark & Schmeling, Maik, 2024. "What moves markets?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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