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Review of Financial Studies Vol. 35 No. 5 2022

Monetary Policy Risk: Rules versus Discretion

David K. Backus1; Mikhail Chernov2; Stanley E. Zin1; Irina Zviadadze3

1 Stern School of Business, New York University, and NBER · 2 UCLA Anderson School of Management, CEPR, and NBER · 3 HEC Paris and CEPR

Abstract

Long-run asset pricing restrictions in a macro term structure model identify discretionary monetary policy separately from a policy rule. We find that policy discretion is an important contributor to aggregate risk. In addition, discretionary easing coincides with good news about the macroeconomy in the form of lower inflation, higher output growth, and lower risk premiums on short-term nominal bonds. However, it also coincides with bad news about long-term financial conditions in the form of higher risk premiums on long-term nominal bonds. Shocks to the rule correlate with changes in the yield curve’s level. Shocks to discretion correlate with changes in its slope.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhab090
Volume
35
Issue
5
Pages
2308-2344
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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