Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy

<p>Monetary policy since the global financial crisis of 2007/08 has contended with the 'unknown unknowns' associated with Knightian uncertainty rather than the 'known unknowns' associated with risk. We find that when a policymaker knows neither the parameters of his model n...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Paul, A
Other Authors: Ellison, M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2017
_version_ 1817931633340186624
author Paul, A
author2 Ellison, M
author_facet Ellison, M
Paul, A
author_sort Paul, A
collection OXFORD
description <p>Monetary policy since the global financial crisis of 2007/08 has contended with the 'unknown unknowns' associated with Knightian uncertainty rather than the 'known unknowns' associated with risk. We find that when a policymaker knows neither the parameters of his model nor the probability distribution from which those parameters are drawn, more fear of model misspecification calls for more aggressive use of both conventional and unconventional instruments. Moreover, the greater the policymaker's doubts about the effect of asset purchases relative to the effect of interest rate changes, the greater the relative zeal with which he should pursue the former. Critics of the U.S. Federal Reserve argue that "unwarranted pessimism" about the effectiveness of quantitative easing (QE) inhibited the postcrisis monetary policy response. We find that this relative passivism during QE2 may instead have been the optimal response to less fear of model misspecification following QE1. Rather than the FOMC's return to activism during QE3 implying that its passivism during QE2 was undue, it may be the latter that was warranted and the former that was undue.</p>
first_indexed 2024-03-06T18:03:34Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:00a4f88f-114f-4e20-b354-ca66440447f1
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-09T03:25:07Z
publishDate 2017
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:00a4f88f-114f-4e20-b354-ca66440447f12024-12-01T08:41:33ZEssays on Unconventional Monetary PolicyThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:00a4f88f-114f-4e20-b354-ca66440447f1EnglishORA Deposit2017Paul, AEllison, M<p>Monetary policy since the global financial crisis of 2007/08 has contended with the 'unknown unknowns' associated with Knightian uncertainty rather than the 'known unknowns' associated with risk. We find that when a policymaker knows neither the parameters of his model nor the probability distribution from which those parameters are drawn, more fear of model misspecification calls for more aggressive use of both conventional and unconventional instruments. Moreover, the greater the policymaker's doubts about the effect of asset purchases relative to the effect of interest rate changes, the greater the relative zeal with which he should pursue the former. Critics of the U.S. Federal Reserve argue that "unwarranted pessimism" about the effectiveness of quantitative easing (QE) inhibited the postcrisis monetary policy response. We find that this relative passivism during QE2 may instead have been the optimal response to less fear of model misspecification following QE1. Rather than the FOMC's return to activism during QE3 implying that its passivism during QE2 was undue, it may be the latter that was warranted and the former that was undue.</p>
spellingShingle Paul, A
Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title_full Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title_fullStr Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title_full_unstemmed Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title_short Essays on Unconventional Monetary Policy
title_sort essays on unconventional monetary policy
work_keys_str_mv AT paula essaysonunconventionalmonetarypolicy