Information effects of euro area monetary policy

Abstract

This paper provides evidence for central bank information effects in the euro area. ECB announcements seem to convey information not only about monetary policy, but also about economic fundamentals. I separate these “information surprises” from “pure policy surprises” via sign restrictions and find intuitive effects of both surprise on a wide set of financial market prices, survey expectations and macroeconomic aggregates. Both surprise series are updated and made publicly available.