Monetary Policy in the Greenspan Era: A Time Series Analysis of Rules vs. Discretion

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Relationships between the Federal funds rate, unemployment, inflation and the long-term bond rate are investigated with cointegration techniques. We find a stable long-term relationship between the Federal funds rate, unemployment and the bond rate. This relationship is interpretable as a policy target because deviations are corrected via the Federal funds rate. Deviations of the actual Federal funds rate from the estimated target give simple indications of discretionary monetary policy, and the larger deviations relate to special episodes outside the current information set. A more traditional Taylor-type target, where inflation appears instead of the bond rate, does not seem congruent with the data.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
Volume71
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)69-89
Number of pages22
ISSN0305-9049
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

ID: 9903709