This paper estimates the impact of monetary policy actions on bill, note, and bond yields, using data from the futures market for Federal funds to separate changes in the target funds rate into anticipated and unanticipated components. Bond rates' response to anticipated changes is essentially...

This paper analyzes the impact of unanticipated changes in the federal funds rate target on equity prices, with the aim of both estimating the size of the typical reaction and understanding the reasons for the market's response. We find that over the June 1989-December 2002 sample period, a...

The authors assess the effects of central bank governor appointments on financial market expectations of monetary policy. To measure these effects, they assemble a new dataset of appointment announcements from 15 industrialized countries and conduct an event-study analysis on exchange rates,...

This paper addresses the possible role of bond prices as operating or intermediate targets for monetary policy. The paper begins with a brief review of the mechanisms through which a central bank could, in theory, influence long-term interest rates, and continues with a brief narrative overview...

The swift growth of e-commerce and the Internet has led to the development of a new form of electronic funds transfer - the personal on-line payment - that uses web and e-mail technologies to initiate and confirm payments. This article describes this payment instrument and the trends that have...

Despite predictions to the contrary, the Asia crisis had only modest overall effects on the United States. The expected surge in import volumes did not materialize and the drop in demand for U.S. exports was not enough to slow the nation's robust economy. Nevertheless, these overall effects...

In 1991, the Japanese economy ended a historic expansion and entered a period of stagnation that has yet to abate. Nine years later, the US economy ended a similarly historic expansion. There were many similarities in the two countries' expansions: asset price bubbles, a real investment boom,...