Monetary Actions and Sub-macroeconomic Impacts: A Multi-period Assessment

This study investigates monetary impacts within the regional economies of the United States. It provides updated evidence on regional impacts and examines how impacts have changed over time. Using vector autoregression (VAR) methods, impacts are investigated for the overall period (1959-2003), and two sub-periods, 1959-1979 and 1980-2003. The study finds that regional economies do respond differently to monetary shocks. Evidence also indicates that these effects have changed over time; pre-1980 patterns no longer apply in many key regions. Notable in the results are the much-moderated period two impacts and shifting across region's ranking as "stronger/weaker than average" impacts.