hero working papers

Why are Long Rates Sensitive to Monetary Policy?

Number: 256
Year: 2004
Author(s): Tore Ellingsen (Stockholm School of Economics) and Ulf Soderstrom (IGIER, Università Bocconi)

We use a quantitative model of the U.S. economy to analyze the response
of long-term interest rates to monetary policy, and compare the model results
with empirical evidence. We find that the strong and time-varying yield curve
response to monetary policy innovations found in the data can be explained by
the model. A key ingredient in explaining the yield curve response is central
bank private information about the state of the economy or about its own
target for inflation.

Keywords: Term structure of interest rates, yield curve, central bank privateinformation, excess sensitivity
JEL codes: E43, E52