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1. Perceptions About Monetary Policy

   https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjae021  

   Bauer, Michael D; Pflueger, Carolin E; Sunderam, Adi (June 2024, The Quarterly Journal of Economics)

   Abstract We estimate perceptions about the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy rule from panel data on professional forecasts of interest rates and macroeconomic conditions. The perceived dependence of the federal funds rate on economic conditions varies substantially over time, in particular over the monetary policy cycle. Forecasters update their perceptions about the Fed’s policy rule in response to monetary policy actions, measured by high-frequency interest rate surprises, suggesting that they have imperfect information about the rule. Monetary policy perceptions matter for monetary transmission, as they affect the sensitivity of interest rates to macroeconomic news, term premia in long-term bonds, and the response of the stock market to monetary policy surprises. A simple learning model with forecaster heterogeneity and incomplete information about the policy rule motivates and explains our empirical findings. 

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2. Debauchery and Original Sin: The Currency Composition of Sovereign Debt

   Engel, Charles Park (June 2022, Journal of the European Economic Association)

   We present a model that accounts for the “mystery of original sin”, and the surge in local currency borrowing by emerging economies in the recent decade. We quantitatively investigate the currency composition of sovereign debt in the presence of two types of limited enforcement frictions arising from a government’s monetary and debt policy: strategic currency debasement and default on sovereign debt. Local currency debt obligations act as a better consumption hedge against income shocks than foreign currency debt because their real value can be affected by monetary policy. However, this provides a government with more temptation to deviate from disciplined monetary policy, thus restricting borrowing in local currency more than in foreign currency. Our model predicts that a country with less credible monetary policy borrows mainly in foreign currency as a substitute for monetary credibility. An important extension demonstrates that in the presence of an expectational Phillips curve, local currency debt improves the ability of monetary policymakers to commit. 

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3. A Reconsideration of the Failure of Uncovered Interest Parity for the U.S. Dollar

   Engel, Charles Kazakova (May 2022, Journal of international economics)

   We reexamine the time-series evidence on uncovered interest rate parity for the U.S. dollar versus major currencies at short-, medium- and long-horizons. The evidence that interest rate differentials predict foreign exchange returns is not stable over time and disappears altogether when interest rates are near the zero-lower bound. However, we find that year-on-year inflation rate differentials predict excess returns – when the U.S. y.o.y. inflation rate is relatively high, subsequent returns on U.S. deposits tend to be high. We interpret this as consistent with the hypothesis that markets underreact initially to predictable changes in future monetary policy. The predictive power of y.o.y. inflation begins in the mid-1980s when central banks began to target inflation consistently and continues in the post-ZLB period when interest rates lose their primacy as a policy instrument. We attempt to address some econometric problems that might bias the conventional Fama (1984) test. 

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4. Monetary Policy with Opinionated Markets

   https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20210271  

   Caballero, Ricardo J.; Simsek, Alp (July 2022, American Economic Review)

   We build a model in which the Fed and the market disagree about future aggregate demand. The market anticipates monetary policy “mistakes,” which affect current demand and induce the Fed to partially accommodate the market’s view. The Fed expects to implement its view gradually. Announcements that reveal an unexpected change in the Fed’s belief provide a microfoundation for monetary policy shocks. Tantrum shocks arise when the market misinterprets the Fed’s belief and overreacts to its announcement. Uncertainty about tantrums motivates further gradualism and communication. Finally, disagreements affect the market’s expected inflation and induce a policy trade-off similar to “ cost-push” shocks. (JEL D83, E12, E31, E43, E44, E52, E58) 

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5. A Risk-Centric Model of Demand Recessions and Speculation*

   https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjaa008  

   Caballero, Ricardo J; Simsek, Alp (March 2020, The Quarterly Journal of Economics)

   Abstract We provide a continuous-time “risk-centric” representation of the New Keynesian model, which we use to analyze the interactions between asset prices, financial speculation, and macroeconomic outcomes when output is determined by aggregate demand. In principle, interest rate policy is highly effective in dealing with shocks to asset valuations. However, in practice monetary policy faces a wide range of constraints. If these constraints are severe, a decline in risky asset valuations generates a demand recession. This reduces earnings and generates a negative feedback loop between asset prices and aggregate demand. In the recession phase, average beliefs matter because they not only affect asset valuations but also determine the strength of the amplification mechanism. In the ex ante boom phase, belief disagreements (or heterogeneous asset valuations) matter because they induce investors to speculate. This speculation exacerbates the crash by reducing high-valuation investors’ wealth when the economy transitions to recession, which depresses (wealth-weighted) average beliefs. Macroprudential policy that restricts speculation in the boom can Pareto improve welfare by increasing asset prices and aggregate demand in the recession. 

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