With short term interest rates bounded at zero, monetary policy has aimed at affecting the yield curve at the longer end during the recent years. As the recent literature has shown, the quantitative easing programs conducted by the Federal reserve have significantly lowered long-term yields....

This paper explains the effects of monetary policy surprises on long-term interest rates and stock prices in terms of changes in expected inflation, real interest rate and dividend growth, and relates these effects to markets’ perceptions of economic shocks and Fed’s information set. We...