Showing 1 – 10 of 10 results.
Curated
FOMC Learning and Productivity Growth (1985-2003): A Reading of the Record (ICPSR 34709)
Released/updated on: 2013-06-19
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1977-01-01--2002-12-31
The increasingly rapid productivity growth that began in the 1990s was the defining economic event of the decade and a major topic of debate among Federal Reserve policymakers. A key aspect of the debate was the contrast between information contained in aggregate data, which initially suggested little productivity gain, and anecdotal firm-level evidence, which hinted at the productivity acceleration. The authors revisit this debate from the actual FOMC transcripts. Their study illustrates the process by which policymakers filter incoming data to identify changes in underlying fundamental trends.
Curated
The Fed, Liquidity, and Credit Allocation (ICPSR 24563)
Released/updated on: 2013-06-14
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1995-01-01--2008-11-30
The current financial turmoil has generated considerable discussion of liquidity. Moreover, it has been widely reported that the Federal Reserve played a major role in supplying liquidity to financial markets during this distressed time. This article describes two ways in which the Fed has supplied liquidity since late 2007. The first is traditional: The Fed supplies liquidity by providing credit through open market operations and by lending to depository institutions at the so-called discount window. The second is by enhancing the liquidity of portfolios of some institutions by replacing their less-liquid assets with more-liquid assets. The Fed has used the second approach since late 2007. Unlike several previous occasions, however, it began supplying liquidity in the first, more traditional way only recently in September 2008. This article notes that the Fed departed from its long-standing tradition of minimizing its effect on the allocation of credit by supplying liquidity to institutions that it believed to be most in need, at the same time, it neutralized the effects of these actions on the total supply of liquidity in the financial market. The article also discusses the Fed's reasons for reallocating credit this time rather than simply increasing the total supply of financial market liquidity.
Curated
Committee Decisions on Monetary Policy: Evidence From Historical Records of the Federal Open Market Committee (ICPSR 23860)
Released/updated on: 2010-05-06
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1965-01-01--1999-12-31
This data collection was used in the book, "Committee Decisions on Monetary Policy: Evidence from Historical Records of the Federal Open Market Committee," by Henry Chappell, Rob Roy McGregor, and Todd Vermilyea, which examined the monetary policy preferences of members of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) and the process by which its members' preferences were translated into policy decisions.
Chapter 4
Data files related to Chapter 4 of the book are contained in: Ch04WebFiles.zip. See the readme file contained within that zip file for documentation.
Chapter 5
All data described in Chapter 5 is subsequently employed in Chapters 6-8. Descriptions are provided below in the sections for those chapters.
Chapter 6
Data files related to Chapter 6 are contained in Chapter06_Data_for_Web.zip. See the readme file contained within that zip file for documentation. Many data files for Chapter 6 are the same as those used in Chapter 7. More details are provided below for Chapter 7.
Chapter 7
Data and programs for this chapter come from the JMCB article from which the chapter is drawn. Data files related to the JMCB article are contained in: ChappellMcGregorVermilyea_Data_011503.zip. See the JMCB.pdf file contained within that zip file for documentation.
Section 7.5.2 of this chapter also uses data describing the order of speaking within meetings. We have used this data more extensively in our working paper, "The Persuasive Power of the Chairman: Arthur Burns and the FOMC." Data for that paper is provided in the: WEA_BeforeAfter_Data_Archive.zip.
Chapter 8
Much of the data (and methods) used in Chapter 6 are used again in Chapter 8. Relevant data and program files and documentation are provided in: Chapter08_Data_for Web.zip.
Curated
More Money: Understanding Recent Changes in the Monetary Base (ICPSR 25061)
Released/updated on: 2009-03-11
Geographic coverage: United States
The financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007 took a turn for the worse in September 2008. Until then, Federal Reserve actions taken to improve the functioning financial markets did not affect the monetary base. The unusual lending and purchase of private debt was offset by the sale of United States Treasury securities so that the total size of the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve remained relatively unchanged. In September, however, the Federal Reserve stopped selling securities as it made massive purchases of private debt and issued hundreds of billions of dollars in short-term loans. The result was a doubling of the size of the monetary base in the final four months of 2008. This article discusses the details of the programs that the Federal Reserve has initiated since the crisis began, shows which programs have grown as the monetary base grew, and discusses some factors that will determine whether this rapid increase in the monetary base will lead to rapid inflation.
Curated
Three Funerals and a Wedding (ICPSR 24543)
Released/updated on: 2009-01-26
Geographic coverage: United States
This article is a modified and updated version of a speech presented at the Regional Economic Summit, Evansville, Indiana, November 20, 2008.
Curated
Forecasting Inflation and Growth: Do Private Forecasts Match Those of Policymakers? (ICPSR 1242)
Released/updated on: 2001-06-12
Geographic coverage: United States
Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) projections are important because they provide information for evaluating current monetary policy intentions and because they indicate what FOMC members think will be the likely consequence of their policies. Knowing the Fed's objectives, their forecasts, and recent deviations of the economy from the forecasts should be sufficient to understand how the Fed is making monetary policy. Results here show that the Blue Chip consensus forecasts are a good proxy for the FOMC views. For example, they match the policymakers' views as closely as do the Board staff forecasts presented at FOMC meetings. Using alternative forms of the Taylor rule, the authors show that the Blue Chip consensus and the Fed policymakers' forecasts have almost identical implications for the monetary policy process.
Curated
History of the Asymmetric Policy Directive (ICPSR 1230)
Released/updated on: 2000-12-06
Geographic coverage: United States
From 1983 through 1999, policy directives issued by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) contained a statement pertaining to possible future policy actions, which was known as the "symmetry," "tilt," or "bias" of the directive. In May 1999, the FOMC began to announce publicly the symmetry of its current directive. This resulted in much speculation about the meaning of asymmetric directives, which the FOMC had never officially defined. In this article, the authors. investigate three suggested interpretations: (1) Asymmetry was intended to convey likely changes in policy either between FOMC meetings or at the next meeting, (2) Asymmetry increased the chairman's authority to change policy in the direction indicated by the specified asymmetry, and (3) Asymmetric language was used primarily to build consensus among voting FOMC members. The authors find strong support in the implementation of monetary policy only for the consensus-building hypothesis.
Curated
FOMC in 1998: Can It Get Any Better Than This? (ICPSR 1210)
Released/updated on: 2000-05-02
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1998-01-01--1998-12-31
This article explores how the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) largely contributed to the solid performance of the United States economy in 1998. The author discusses how the FOMC focused on domestic spending growth, tight labor markets, and increasing money stock growth to create a monetary policy that prevented increase in domestic demand. Further, the data illustrate how the committee also eased policy to accommodate the increasing demand for liquidity caused by Russia's default on its domestic debt and economic weaknesses in Asia and Latin America.
Curated
FOMC in 1993 and 1994: Monetary Policy in Transition (ICPSR 1147)
Released/updated on: 1998-08-27
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1993-01-01--1993-12-31, 1994-01-01--1994-12-31
The data collection contains data on the actions of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve's primary policymaking body, over the last two years.
Curated
FOMC in 1995: A Step Closer to Inflation Targeting? (ICPSR 1167)
Released/updated on: 1998-08-27
Geographic coverage: United States
Time period: 1995-01-01--1995-12-31
The data explore using price level rather than money supply as a guide for Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy regarding inflation.