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Discussion Paper
Is Trend Inflation at Risk of Becoming Unanchored? The Role of Inflation Expectations
Since the start of the pandemic, views about the evolution of aggregate consumer prices moved swiftly from concerns about deflation to fears about excessive inflation. It is hard to find a parallel in the history of the U.S. economy—or the global economy more generally—to this rapid reversal of risks to the inflation outlook.
Working Paper
Assessing Macroeconomic Tail Risk
What drives macroeconomic tail risk? To answer this question, we borrow a definition of macroeconomic risk from Adrian et al. (2019) by studying (left-tail) percentiles of the forecast distribution of GDP growth. We use local projections (Jord, 2005) to assess how this measure of risk moves in response to economic shocks to the level of technology, monetary policy, and financial conditions. Furthermore, by studying various percentiles jointly, we study how the overall economic outlook?as characterized by the entire forecast distribution of GDP growth?shifts in response to shocks. We find that ...
Working Paper
Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income: Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas
We use Zip code–level Statistics of Income data from the Internal Revenue Service to measure the distribution of income within U.S. metropolitan areas from 1998 through 2019. Exploiting geographic variation in income distribution over time, we study how unanticipated changes in the monetary policy stance shape the subsequent dynamics of income inequality. The results show that monetary policy persistently affects labor income inequality and that these distributional effects are amplified significantly in weak local labor markets.
Working Paper
Assessing Macroeconomic Tail Risk
What drives macroeconomic tail risk? To answer this question, we borrow a definition of macroeconomic risk from Adrian et al. (2019) by studying (left-tail) percentiles of the forecast distribution of GDP growth. We use local projections (Jord, 2005) to assess how this measure of risk moves in response to economic shocks to the level of technology, monetary policy, and financial conditions. Furthermore, by studying various percentiles jointly, we study how the overall economic outlook-as characterized by the entire forecast distribution of GDP growth-shifts in response to shocks. We find that ...
Working Paper
Financial Market Effects of FOMC Communication: Evidence from a New Event-Study Database
This paper introduces the U.S. Monetary Policy Event-Study Database (USMPD), a novel, public, and regularly updated dataset of financial market data around Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy announcements, press conferences, and minutes releases. Using the rich high-frequency data in the USMPD, we document several new empirical findings. Large monetary policy surprises have made a comeback in recent years, and post-meeting press conferences have become the most important source of policy news. Monetary policy surprises have pronounced negative effects on breakeven inflation based on ...
Working Paper
Accounting for Uncertainty and Risks in Monetary Policy
This paper discusses the measurement, assessment, and communication of risks and uncertainty that are relevant for monetary policy. It provides a taxonomy of policy-relevant uncertainty related to the state and the structure of the economy, and the formation of expectations. A wide range of tools is available to assess and quantify uncertainty and the balance of risks. Qualitative assessments of uncertainty—in policy statements, minutes, and speeches—are the main tools to communicate uncertainty and the balance of risks across major central banks. However, the use of quantitative ...
Working Paper
Accounting for Uncertainty and Risks in Monetary Policy
This paper discusses the measurement, assessment, and communication of risks and uncertainty that are relevant for monetary policy. It provides a taxonomy of policy-relevant uncertainty related to the state and the structure of the economy, and the formation of expectations. A wide range of tools is available to assess and quantify uncertainty and the balance of risks. Qualitative assessments of uncertainty—in policy statements, minutes, and speeches—are the main tools to communicate uncertainty and the balance of risks across major central banks. However, the use of quantitative tools ...
Discussion Paper
Monetary Policy and the Distribution of Income: Evidence from U.S. Metropolitan Areas
The steady rise in income inequality and the broad range of actions undertaken by central banks in recent years – first to stabilize the global economy during the 2008-09 financial crisis and second to stave off the pandemic-induced economic collapse – have brought the distributional footprint of monetary policy to the forefront of the economic policymaking discussion (Bernanke, 2015; Draghi, 2016; BIS, 2021).