"Over the period 1961-1991, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) attempted to directly control the volume of commercial bank credit by providing lending targets for selected banks. This policy of "window guidance" (WG) applied to only a subset of lending institutions. The guided banks involved were under no...

The question of how monetary policy translates across the yield curve is at the forefront of many recent policy debates. This debate takes on added intensity when the choice of policy regime is heterogeneous. Monetary policy targets the very short end of the yield curve, although real economic...