It is important for monetary policy makers to know how closely money market rates follow the policy rates they set. This paper looks at the volatility and persistence of divergences between short-term market interest rates away from policy rates. This may also offer insights into the...

Modern electronic payment systems rely on trusted, central third parties to process payments securely. Recent developments have seen the creation of digital currencies like Bitcoin, which combine new currencies with decentralised payment systems. Although the monetary aspects of digital...

Although digital currencies could, in theory, serve as money for anybody with an internet-enabled device, at present they act as money only to a limited extent and only for relatively few people. The economics of the schemes as currently designed, both in terms of individuals’ incentives and...

The Bank of England implements the policy stance of the Monetary Policy Committee through its operations in the sterling money markets. It also uses these operations to reduce the costs of disruption to the liquidity and payment services supplied by banks. In order to ensure their continued...

Implied probability density functions (PDFs) estimated from cross-sections of observed options prices are gaining increasing attention amongst academics and practitioners. However, to date little attention has been paid to the robustness of these estimates or to the confidence users can place in...

Cross-sections of option prices embed the risk-neutral probability densities functions (PDFs) for the future values of the underlying asset. Theory suggests that risk-neutral PDFs differ from market expectations due to risk premia. Using a utility function to adjust the risk-neutral PDF to...

Implied probability density functions (PDFs) estimated from cross-sections of observed option prices are gaining increasing attention amongst academics and practitioners. To date, however, little attention has been paid to the robustness of these estimates or to the confidence that users can...

The goal of this study is to measure market prices of risk and the associated foreign exchange risk premia extending the approach proposed by Balduzzi and Robotti (2001) to an international framework. Estimations of minimum variance stochastic discount factors permits the determination of market...

The paper considers two small analytical models, one Old-Keynesian, the other New-Keynesian, possessing equilibria where nominal interest rates at all maturities can be stuck at their zero lower bound. When the authorities remove the zero nominal interest rate floor by adopting an augmented...