History of the Asymmetric Policy Directive (ICPSR 1230)

Version Date: Dec 6, 2000

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Principal Investigator(s):
Daniel L. Thornton, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; David C. Wheelock, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01230.v1

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Summary

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.

Citation

Thornton, Daniel L., and Wheelock, David C. History of the Asymmetric Policy Directive. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000-12-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01230.v1

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Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Data Collection Notes

  1. (1) The file submitted, 0009dtd.xls, contains data and program files. (2) These data are part of ICPSR's Publication-Related Archive and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigators if further information is desired.

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Original Release Date

2000-12-06

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:

  • Thornton, Daniel L., and David C. Wheelock. History of the Asymmetric Policy Directive. ICPSR01230-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000-12-06. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR01230.v1

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Notes

  • These data are flagged as replication datasets and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.