scholarly journals Monetary Policy and Real Borrowing Costs at the Zero Lower Bound

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Gilchrist ◽  
David López-Salido ◽  
Egon Zakrajšek

This paper compares the effects of conventional monetary policy on real borrowing costs with those of the unconventional measures employed after the target federal funds rate hit the zero lower bound (ZLB). For the ZLB period, we identify two policy surprises: changes in the two-year Treasury yield around policy announcements and changes in the ten-year Treasury yield that are orthogonal to those in the two-year yield. The efficacy of unconventional policy in lowering real borrowing costs is comparable to that of conventional policy, in that it implies a complete pass-through of policy-induced movements in Treasury yields to comparable-maturity private yields. (JEL E31, E43, E44, E52)

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Oliver Berg

AbstractThis paper discusses how the forecast accuracy of a Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) is affected by introducing the zero lower bound on the federal funds rate. As a benchmark I adopt a common BVAR specification, including 18 variables, estimated shrinkage, and no nonlinearity. Then I entertain alternative specifications of the zero lower bound. I account for the possibility that the effect of monetary policy on the economy is different in this regime, replace the federal funds rate by its shadow rate, consider a logarithmic transformation, feed in monetary policy shocks, or utilize conditional forecasts allowing for all shocks implemented through a rejection sampler. The latter two are also coupled with interest rate expectations from future contracts. It is shown that the predictive densities of all these specifications are greatly different, suggesting that this modeling choice is not innocuous. The comparison is based on the accuracy of point and density forecasts of major US macroeconomic series during the period 2009:1 to 2014:4. The introduction of the zero lower bound is not beneficial per se, but it depends on how it is done and which series is forecasted. With caution, I recommend the shadow rate specification and the rejection sampler combined with interest rate expectations to deal with the nonlinearity in the policy rate. Since the policy rate will remain low for some time, these findings could prove useful for practical forecasters.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stan Hurn ◽  
Nicholas Johnson ◽  
Annastiina Silvennoinen ◽  
Timo Teräsvirta

Abstract This paper examines the Taylor rule in the context of United States monetary policy since 1965, particularly with respect to the zero-lower-bound era of the federal funds rate from 2009 to 2016. A nonlinear Taylor rule is developed which features smooth transitions in the first two moments of the federal funds rate. This flexible specification is found to usefully capture observed nonlinearity, while accounting for the well-documented structural changes in monetary policy formation at the Federal Reserve in the last 50 years, and especially in the recent zero-lower-bound era.


Author(s):  
Ellis W. Talman ◽  
Saeed Zaman

In the wake of Great Recession, the Federal Reserve engaged in conventional monetary policy actions by reducing the federal funds rate. But soon the rate hit zero, and could go no lower. In such environments, policymakers still think in terms of where the federal funds rate should be, were it possible to go negative. To project the "unconstrained path" of the funds rate—ignoring the zero lower bound—and to identify the key underlying shocks driving that path, we employ a statistical macroeconomic forecasting model. We find that the federal funds rate would have been extremely negative during 2009-2010.


Econometrica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 2855-2885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophocles Mavroeidis

I show that the zero lower bound (ZLB) on interest rates can be used to identify the causal effects of monetary policy. Identification depends on the extent to which the ZLB limits the efficacy of monetary policy. I propose a simple way to test the efficacy of unconventional policies, modeled via a “shadow rate.” I apply this method to U.S. monetary policy using a three‐equation structural vector autoregressive model of inflation, unemployment, and the Federal Funds rate. I reject the null hypothesis that unconventional monetary policy has no effect at the ZLB, but find some evidence that it is not as effective as conventional monetary policy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (39) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Simon Gilchrist ◽  
◽  
J. David López-Salido ◽  
Egon Zakrajšek

Author(s):  
Qianying Chen ◽  
Andrew Filardo ◽  
Dong He ◽  
Feng Zhu

This is a chapter of the domestic impact as well as cross-border spillovers of US monetary policy at the zero lower bound (ZLB) to advanced and emerging economies. We estimate the empirical relevance of the various channels of international policy transmission with a global vector error correction macroeconometric model. To address the challenge of measuring the stance of monetary policy at the ZLB, we proxy it with a shadow federal funds rate, which captures the impact of central bank balance sheet policies. We find evidence that US monetary policy was effective in stimulating the US economy. For many of the other economies, the spillovers from the quantitative easing had sizeable and persistent impacts on output growth, inflation, and equity returns. The responses in the emerging economies were rather diverse. In terms of exchange rates, a number of emerging economy currencies faced strong appreciation pressures (e.g. Malaysian ringgit and Korean won).


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (03) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Gilchrist ◽  
◽  
J. David López-Salido ◽  
Egon Zakrajšek

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Gilchrist ◽  
David López-Salido ◽  
Egon Zakrajšek

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