Unconventional Monetary Policy and the Dollar: Conventional Signs, Unconventional Magnitudes

2015-18 | November 1, 2015

We examine the effects of unconventional monetary policy surprises on the value of the dollar using high-frequency intraday data and contrast them with the effects of conventional policy tools. Identifying monetary policy surprises from changes in interest rate future prices in narrow windows around policy announcements, we find that monetary policy surprises since the Federal Reserve lowered its policy rate to the effective lower bound have had larger effects on the value of the dollar. In particular, we document that the impact on the dollar has been roughly three times that following conventional policy changes prior to the 2007-08 financial crisis.

Article Citation

Glick, Reuven, and Sylvain Leduc. 2015. “Unconventional Monetary Policy and the Dollar: Conventional Signs, Unconventional Magnitudes,” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Working Paper 2015-18. Available at https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2015-18

About the Authors
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Reuven Glick is a group vice president in the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Learn more about Reuven Glick
Sylvain Leduc
Sylvain Leduc is executive vice president and director of Economic Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Learn more about Sylvain Leduc