Forward Guidance Shocks Research Articles

The Forward Guidance Puzzle and Anchored Inflation Expectations

In recent years, central banks have turned to forward guidance as a key tool of monetary policy. However, standard DSGE models overestimate the impact of forward guidance on the economy, a phenomenon known as the “forward guidance puzzle.” In the model employed, the reaction of firms to a central bank’s announcements depends on the degree of anchoring of inflation expectations. When firms do not revise their forecasts much in response to inflation surprises, the effects of forward guidance shocks are attenuated. Furthermore, an increase in the Taylor rule coefficients implies a faster reversion of inflation and output to their steady state levels, thus resulting in more anchored inflation expectations and dampened effects of forward guidance announcements. However, the central bank's exclusive focus on price stability eliminates forward guidance effects. This paper also studies the dependence of forward guidance on fiscal policy, which arises in a nonRicardian economy. We show that the initial effects of the central bank’s announcements become considerably stronger when steady state debt is positive, whereas a stronger reaction of fiscal policy to debt fluctuations attenuates the power of forward guidance.

International spillovers of conventional versus new monetary policy

We use a calibrated open-economy New Keynesian model to compare the spillovers from conventional and new monetary policy shocks from the US to Canada. We find that shocks with similar effects on the US GDP affect Canada’s private bond yield differently. For example, a forward guidance shock increases Canada’s private bond yield by 0.15%, however a quantitative easing (QE) shock decreases it by 0.13%. Our counterfactual policy simulations for the 2008 crisis show that (1) a more aggressive QE by the Fed would have resulted in a milder recession in the US but a steeper one in Canada. (2) If the Bank of Canada had followed the Fed’s QE policies, the drop in Canada’s GDP would have been much smaller. (3) Finally, if the Fed had implemented a mild negative interest rate policy, the effects on the Canadian economy would be similar to those of the benchmark zero-rate policy.

Effects of monetary policy on household expectations: The role of homeownership

We study the role of homeownership in the effectiveness of monetary policy on households’ expectations based on individual-level microdata in the U.S. We find that homeowners lower their near-term inflation expectations and optimism about the labor market outlook in response to a rise in mortgage rates, while renters are less likely to do so. We further show that forward guidance shocks lead to similar differences between homeowners and renters. Our results suggest that homeowners pay attention to news on interest rates and adjust their expectations accordingly in a manner consistent with the intended effect of monetary policy. We characterize this empirical finding with a rational inattention model where mortgage payments create an incentive for homeowners to acquire information on monetary policy, unlike renters. This housing-driven endogenous attentiveness is the key mechanism behind the compelling empirical link among homeownership, attention, and the transmission of monetary policy.

Forward Guidance Effectiveness in a New Keynesian Model with Housing Frictions

Abstract Housing markets are closely related to monetary policy. This paper studies the link between housing frictions and the effectiveness of forward guidance. A housing collateral constraint and forward guidance shocks are incorporated into a standard medium-scale New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model. Our main results produce a number of important implications. First, financial frictions emanating from the housing market dampen the effectiveness of forward guidance on the economy. Second, forward guidance shocks generate welfare gains, though the magnitude of these gains declines when housing frictions increase. Housing frictions also attenuate the effect of forward guidance at the zero lower bound. Finally, this article provides a solution to “forward guidance puzzle” of Del Negro, M., M. P. Giannoni, and C. Patterson (2012. “The Forward Guidance Puzzle.” In FRB of New York Staff Report, 574). Thus, policymakers should consider housing frictions when examining the effects of forward guidance on the economy.

A new approach to integrating expectations into VAR models

Expectations play a central role in macroeconomics. Expectations are empirically measured from surveys or financial markets and are frequently analyzed in Vector autoregressive (VAR) models alongside realized data of the same variable. However, this leads to two different expectations for the same variable: the VAR-based forecast and the external forecast. This paper proposes a Bayesian prior over the VAR parameters which allows for varying degrees of consistency between these two forecasts. As we demonstrate in two applications, our approach can sharpen structural VAR identification of forward guidance shocks and enhances VAR forecasts of inflation tail risks.

Disciplining expectations and the forward guidance puzzle

Forward guidance operates via the expectations formation process of the agents in the economy. In standard quantitative macroeconomic models, expectations are unobserved variables formed endogenously via the dynamics of the model and little scrutiny is devoted to analysing the behaviour of these expectations. We show that the introduction of survey and financial market-based forecast data in the estimation of the model disciplines the expectations formation process in DSGE models. When the model-implied expectations are matched to observed expectations, the additional information of the forecasts restrains the agents’ expectations formation. We argue that the reduced volatility of the agents’ expectations dampens the model reactions to forward guidance shocks and improves the out-of-sample forecast accuracy of the model. Furthermore, we evaluate the case for introducing a discount factor as a reduced form proxy for a variety of microfounded approaches, proposed to mitigate the forward guidance puzzle. Once data on expectations is considered, the empirical support to introduce a discount factor dissipates.

Deciphering Federal Reserve Communication via Text Analysis of Alternative FOMC Statements

We apply a natural language processing algorithm to FOMC statements to construct a new measure of monetary policy stance, including the tone and novelty of a policy statement. We exploit cross-sectional variations across alternative FOMC statements to identify the tone (for example, dovish or hawkish), and contrast the current and previous FOMC statements released after Committee meetings to identify the novelty of the announcement. We then use high-frequency bond prices to compute the surprise component of the monetary policy stance. Our text-based estimates of monetary policy surprises are not sensitive to the choice of bond maturities used in estimation, are highly correlated with forward guidance shocks in the literature, and are associated with lower stock returns after unexpected policy tightening. The key advantage of our approach is that we are able to conduct a counterfactual policy evaluation by replacing the released statement with an alternative statement, allowing us to perform a more detailed investigation at the sentence and paragraph level.

Similarity-Augmented Structural Vector Autoregression: The Effects of Forward Guidance Shocks in Different Monetary Policy Conditions

Similarity-Augmented Structural Vector Autoregression: The Effects of Forward Guidance Shocks in Different Monetary Policy Conditions

The effect of central bank credibility on forward guidance in an estimated New Keynesian model

AbstractThis paper examines the effectiveness of forward guidance shocks in the US. We estimate a New Keynesian model with imperfect central bank credibility and heterogeneous expectations using Bayesian methods and survey data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF). The results provide important takeaways: (1) The estimated credibility of the Fed’s forward guidance announcements is relatively high, but anticipation effects are attenuated. Accordingly, output and inflation do not respond as favorably as in the fully credible counterfactual. (2) The so-called “forward guidance puzzle” arises partly from the unrealistically large responses of macroeconomic variables to forward guidance under perfect credibility and homogeneous fully informed rational expectations, assumptions which are found to be jointly inconsistent with the observed US data. (3) Imperfect credibility provides a plausible explanation for the empirical evidence of forecasting error predictability based on forecasting disagreement found in the SPF data. Thus, we show that accounting for imperfect credibility and forecasting disagreements is important to understand the formation of expectations and the transmission mechanism of forward guidance.

Monetary Policy Uncertainty and Economic Fluctuations at the Zero Lower Bound

We propose a TVP-VAR with stochastic volatility for the unemployment rate, core inflation and the federal funds rate augmented with survey-based interest rate expectations and uncertainty and a FAVAR with a wider set of observable variables and alternative monetary policy measures in order to explore U.S. monetary policy, accounting for the zero lower bound. We find that a rise in monetary policy uncertainty increases unemployment and lowers core inflation; the effects on unemployment in particular are robust (a gradual 0.4 percentage point increase), lasting more than two years after the initial shock. Interest rate uncertainty shocks explain a significant portion of macro fluctuations, particularly after the 2007-09 global financial crisis contributing to push the unemployment rate one percentage point higher during the early phase of the subsequent recovery. Furthermore, we find that higher interest rate uncertainty makes forward guidance shocks (but also federal funds rate shocks) less effective at moving unemployment and core inflation. We also posit a theoretical model to provide the structural backbone for our empirical results, via an “option value” channel. Theory yields sizeable real effects and a muted monetary policy transmission mechanism as firms choose to postpone investment decisions in response to heightened interest rate uncertainty.

The macroeconomic effects of forward communication

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the power of forward guidance at different horizons, shedding new light on the strength of the “forward guidance puzzle”. Our identification strategy allows us to disentangle target and forward guidance shocks from central bank private information. We investigate to what extent the horizon of guidance matters for its macroeconomic effects, and find that as the communication horizon lengthens, its impact on output and inflation weakens. This runs contrary to the prediction from standard New Keynesian models that the power of forward guidance increases with its horizon.

Dynamic Impact of Unconventional Monetary Policy on International REITs

In this paper, we estimate the dynamic impact of unconventional monetary policy in the US on international REITs. Unlike existing studies which are limited to conventional policy tools and undertake a static approach, we use an event study approach and estimate a time-varying parameter model to investigate the dynamic impact of forward guidance (FG) and large-scale asset purchases (LSAP) shocks on the international REIT returns. We also compare the effects of these unconventional tools with the effects of conventional federal funds rate (FFR) shocks. The results show that the response of international REITs to unconventional policy shocks depends on the time under consideration. FG shocks have greater time-variation in the impact on REIT returns compared to LSAP shocks, particularly with Australia, Belgium, and the US REIT markets. Furthermore, FG shocks broadly have a negative impact on REITs while the results for LSAP effects are mixed. We also find that in most countries, REITs time-varying response of FG shocks is related to changes in gold prices and financial conditions.

International spillovers of forward guidance shocks

SummaryWe estimate a two‐country model of the United States and Canada over the post 2009 sample to study the cross‐country spillovers of forward guidance shocks. To do so, we propose a method to identify forward guidance shocks during the fixed interest rate regime. The estimated forward guidance shocks coincide with significant U.S. monetary policy announcements such as the introduction of calendar‐based guidance in 2011. While a 2‐quarter expansionary forward guidance shock decreases Canadian output by about 0.2% to 0.4% on impact, we find that the United States and Canada were both better off by responding with expansionary monetary policy to the large contractionary shocks that took place during the Great Recession. The central message of our paper is that the focus on whether monetary policy spillovers are expansionary or contractionary is incomplete. What matters is whether the combined monetary policy response is stabilizing in aggregate.

International Effects of Euro Area Forward Guidance*

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the international effects of euro rate forward guidance (FG) and compare them to spillovers from a conventional monetary policy shock (MP). We identify the forward guidance shock via a combination of zero and sign restrictions that use the relationship between expectations and observed data and additionally draw on insights from recent event studies using high‐frequency data. To address potential time variation, we use a fully flexible approach that allows to handle both drifts in residual variances and the structural coefficients. Our results show that both shocks lead to considerable international effects on output growth, inflation and equity returns. Moreover, we find that effects are stronger during the period of the global financial crisis, which is particularly true for the FG shock. This implies that monetary policy is generally not hindered in affecting the real economy by the zero lower bound. Also, shocks to expectations can have real domestic effects with international consequences.

Central Bank Communication and Forward Guidance Shocks

Does it matter what the central bank had said during a monetary policy announcement? The paper proposes a new approach to identifying the effects of forward guidance taking into account what the central bank had said and how financial markets perceived it. I use computational linguistic methods to disentangle the topics the central bank was talking about during its announcements. Moreover, I found that newspapers cover monetary policy announcements and positivity/negativity of the coverage might serve as a proxy to what the markets have heard during the announcements. The study finds that the markets react to monetary policy announcements by incorporating the new information in the yield curve. Furthermore, financial markets are forward-looking and obtain information before its publication in newspapers.

Monetary Policy Uncertainty and Economic Fluctuations at the Zero Lower Bound

We propose a TVP-VAR with stochastic volatility for the unemployment rate, core inflation and the federal funds rate augmented with survey-based interest rate expectations and uncertainty and a FAVAR with a wider set of observable variables and alternative monetary policy measures in order to explore U.S. monetary policy, accounting for the zero lower bound. We find that a rise in monetary policy uncertainty increases unemployment and lowers core inflation; the effects on unemployment in particular are robust (a gradual 0.4 percentage point increase), lasting more than two years after the initial shock. Interest rate uncertainty shocks explain a significant portion of macro fluctuations, particularly after the 2007-09 global financial crisis contributing to push the unemployment rate one percentage point higher during the early phase of the subsequent recovery. Furthermore, we find that higher interest rate uncertainty makes forward guidance shocks (but also federal funds rate shocks) less effective at moving unemployment and core inflation. We also posit a theoretical model to provide the structural backbone for our empirical results, via an “option value” channel. Theory yields sizeable real effects and a muted monetary policy transmission mechanism as firms choose to postpone investment decisions in response to heightened interest rate uncertainty.

Firm-Level Uncertainty and the Transmission of Forward Guidance to Investment

I study the role of firms' uncertainty in the transmission of forward guidance to investment. To do so, I employ a quarterly firm-level panel of U.S. publicly traded firms. I measure forward guidance shocks based on unexpected changes in the slope of the yield curve in a 30-minute window around Federal Reserve announcements. I show that firms which are more uncertain adjust their investment as if they are more pessimistic. Put differently, more uncertain firms adjust their investment relatively more downward for expected monetary tightenings, and relatively less upward for expected loosenings. To explain my empirical findings, I construct a medium-scale New Keynesian model with two sectors, a high-uncertainty and low-uncertainty one. Agents in the high-uncertainty sector are ambiguous (Knightian uncertain) about the informativeness of forward guidance, and choose to take a pessimistic stance due to their ambiguity aversion. The model implies that expansionary forward guidance is less powerful in recessions due to a larger share of uncertain agents.

Deciphering Federal Reserve Communication via Text Analysis of Alternative FOMC Statements

We apply a natural language processing algorithm to FOMC statements to construct a new measure of monetary policy stance, including the tone and novelty of a policy statement. We exploit cross-sectional variations across alternative FOMC statements to identify the tone (for example, dovish or hawkish), and contrast the current and previous FOMC statements released after Committee meetings to identify the novelty of the announcement. We then use high-frequency bond prices to compute the surprise component of the monetary policy stance. Our text-based estimates of monetary policy surprises are not sensitive to the choice of bond maturities used in estimation, are highly correlated with forward guidance shocks in the literature, and are associated with lower stock returns after unexpected policy tightening. The key advantage of our approach is that we are able to conduct a counterfactual policy evaluation by replacing the released statement with an alternative statement, allowing us to perform a more detailed investigation at the sentence and paragraph level.

Learning and the Effectiveness of Central Bank Forward Guidance

AbstractThis paper examines the link between expectations formation and the effectiveness of central bank forward guidance. A standard New Keynesian model is extended to include forward guidance shocks in the monetary policy rule. Agents form expectations about future macro‐economic variables via either the standard rational expectations hypothesis or an adaptive learning model. The results show that the assumption of rational expectations overstates the effects of forward guidance relative to adaptive learning during an economic crisis. Thus, if monetary policy is based on a model with rational expectations, the results of forward guidance could be potentially misleading.

Macroeconomic Effects of Large-Scale Asset Purchases: New Evidence

We examine the macroeconomic effect of large-scale asset purchases (LSAPs) and forward guidance (FG) using a proxy structural VAR estimated on data through 2015, where the stance of the LSAP policy is measured using primary dealer expectations of the Federal Reserve's asset holdings. Monetary policy shocks are identified using instruments constructed from event study yield changes, and additional assumptions are employed to separately identify LSAP and FG shocks. We find that unexpected expansions in the Federal Reserve's asset holdings during the ZLB period between 2008 and 2015 had significant expansionary effects on the macroeconomy, with real activity and inflation rising and unemployment declining notably following the shock. The policy accommodation appears to be transmitted to the economy both through financial markets-including Treasury yields, credit spreads and equity prices-and through bank lending. The effects on Treasury yields and term premiums appear to be longer-lived than previously documented, while the effects on credit spreads and especially bank lending also appear persistent. These results appear fairly robust to alternative identification and econometric methodologies, alternative policy indicators and instruments, and controlling for any possible Federal Reserve information effect. A counterfactual analysis shows that absent the LSAP3 program implemented between late 2012 and 2014, CPI inflation would have been about 1 percentage point lower, while the unemployment rate would have been about 4 percentage points higher, by the end of 2015.