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International Finance Discussion Papers
The International Finance Discussion Papers logo links to the International Finance Discussion Papers home page Identifying VARs Based on High Frequency Futures Data
Jon Faust; Eric Swanson; Jonathan H. Wright
2002-720  (2002)

Abstract:  Using the prices of federal funds futures contracts, we measure the impact of the surprise component of Federal Reserve policy decisions on the expected future trajectory of interest rates. We show how this information can be used to identify the effects of a monetary policy shock in a standard monetary policy VAR. This constitutes an alternative approach to identification that is quite different, and, we would argue, more plausible, than the conventional short-run restrictions. We find that the usual recursive identification of the model is rejected, but we nevertheless agree with the literature's conclusion that only a small fraction of the variance of output can be attributed to monetary policy shocks.

Full paper (392 KB PDF)

Keywords
partial identification, monetary policy, vector autoregressions

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Last update: March 4, 2002