IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedreq/y2008isump235-263nv.94no.3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding monetary policy implementation

Author

Abstract

The Federal Reserve implements its monetary policy objectives by intervening in the interbank market for overnight loans. In particular, it aims to change the supply of reserves available to commercial banks so that the (average) interest rate in this market equals an announced target rate. A recent change in legislation will give the Federal Reserve greater flexibility in this process by allowing it to pay interest on reserve balances. Together, the change and recent events in financial markets have renewed interest in the process of monetary policy implementation. This article presents a simple analytical framework for understanding this process. We use the framework to illustrate the main factors that influence a central bank?s ability to keep the market interest rate close to a target level. We also discuss how paying interest on reserves can be a useful policy tool in this regard.

Suggested Citation

  • Huberto M. Ennis & Todd Keister, 2008. "Understanding monetary policy implementation," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 94(Sum), pages 235-263.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedreq:y:2008:i:sum:p:235-263:n:v.94no.3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.richmondfed.org/-/media/RichmondFedOrg/publications/research/economic_quarterly/2008/summer/pdf/ennis.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marvin Goodfriend, 2002. "Interest on reserves and monetary policy," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 77-84.
    2. R. Spence Hilton & Warren B. Hrung, 2007. "Reserve levels and intraday federal funds rate behavior," Staff Reports 284, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. Bartolini, Leonardo & Bertola, Giuseppe & Prati, Alessandro, 2002. "Day-to-Day Monetary Policy and the Volatility of the Federal Funds Interest Rate," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 34(1), pages 137-159, February.
    4. William Poole, 1968. "Commercial Bank Reserve Management In A Stochastic Model: Implications For Monetary Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(5), pages 769-791, December.
    5. Bech, Morten L. & Garratt, Rod, 2003. "The intraday liquidity management game," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 198-219, April.
    6. James J. McAndrews & Samira Rajan, 2000. "The timing and funding of Fedwire funds transfers," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jul, pages 17-32.
    7. Adam Ashcraft & James Mcandrews & David Skeie, 2011. "Precautionary Reserves and the Interbank Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 311-348, October.
    8. Clouse, James A. & Dow, James Jr., 2002. "A computational model of banks' optimal reserve management policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 1787-1814, September.
    9. Huberto M. Ennis & John A. Weinberg, 2007. "Interest on reserves and daylight credit," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 93(Spr), pages 111-142.
    10. Todd Keister & Antoine Martin & James J. McAndrews, 2008. "Divorcing money from monetary policy," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 14(Sep), pages 41-56.
    11. Albert H. Cox Jr. & Ralph F. Leach, 1964. "Open Market Operations And Reserve Settlement Periods: A Proposed Experiment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(3), pages 534-539, September.
    12. Peter D. Sternlight, 1964. "Reserve Settlement Periods Of Member Banks: Comment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 19(1), pages 94-98, March.
    13. Guthrie, Graeme & Wright, Julian, 2000. "Open mouth operations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 489-516, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Bech, Morten & Keister, Todd, 2017. "Liquidity regulation and the implementation of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 64-77.
    2. Huberto M. Ennis & John A. Weinberg, 2007. "Interest on reserves and daylight credit," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, vol. 93(Spr), pages 111-142.
    3. Todd Keister & Antoine Martin & James J. McAndrews, 2008. "Divorcing money from monetary policy," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 14(Sep), pages 41-56.
    4. Vollmer, Uwe & Wiese, Harald, 2016. "Central bank standing facilities, counterparty risk, and OTC-interbank lending," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 101-122.
    5. Jiho Lee, 2016. "Corridor System and Interest Rates: Volatility and Asymmetry," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(8), pages 1815-1838, December.
    6. Friedman, Benjamin M. & Kuttner, Kenneth N., 2010. "Implementation of Monetary Policy: How Do Central Banks Set Interest Rates?," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 24, pages 1345-1438, Elsevier.
    7. Adam Ashcraft & James Mcandrews & David Skeie, 2011. "Precautionary Reserves and the Interbank Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43, pages 311-348, October.
    8. Garth Baughman & Francesca Carapella, 2020. "Voluntary Reserve Targets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(2-3), pages 583-612, March.
    9. Primus, Keyra, 2017. "Excess reserves, monetary policy and financial volatility," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 153-168.
    10. Keyra Primus, 2013. "'Excess Reserves, Monetary Policy and Financial Volatility," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 183, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    11. Mr. Nils O Maehle, 2020. "Monetary Policy Implementation: Operational Issues for Countries with Evolving Monetary Policy Frameworks," IMF Working Papers 2020/026, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Primus, Keyra, 2013. "Excess Reserves, Monetary Policy and Financial Volatility," MPRA Paper 51670, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Thomas B. King, 2008. "Discipline and Liquidity in the Interbank Market," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(2‐3), pages 295-317, March.
    14. Gaspar, Vitor & Pérez-Quirós, Gabriel & Rodriguez Mendizabal, Hugo, 2004. "Interest Rate Determination in the Interbank Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 4516, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Alexander Kroeger & James J. McAndrews, 2016. "The payment system benefits of high reserve balances," Staff Reports 779, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    16. Gara Afonso & Ricardo Lagos, 2015. "The Over‐the‐Counter Theory of the Fed Funds Market: A Primer," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(S2), pages 127-154, June.
    17. Garth Baughman & Francesca Carapella, 2023. "A Simple Model of Voluntary Reserve Targets with Tolerance Bands," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(2-3), pages 655-672, March.
    18. 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.
    19. Xavier Freixas & Antoine Martin & David Skeie, 2011. "Bank Liquidity, Interbank Markets, and Monetary Policy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2656-2692.
    20. Dressler, Scott J. & Kersting, Erasmus K., 2015. "Excess reserves and economic activity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 17-31.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Federal Reserve banks; Monetary policy;

    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:fip:fedreq:y:2008:i:sum:p:235-263:n:v.94no.3. 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: Christian Pascasio (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbrius.html .

    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.