Chapter 18: Monetary policy: stabilizing the domestic economy

Lecture notes:
In general, central banks have a long list of goals and a short list of tools that they can use in
order to achieve them. The goals include the following:
a) Stabilize prices
b) Stabilize output
c) Stabilize the financial system
d) Stabilize exchange rates
e) Stabilize interest rates
In order to achieve these goals, the central banks have only power to change the supply of
currency and reserves in the economy. More particularly, the central banks can change the size
of the monetary base by doing the following activities:
a) buying and selling government securities and
b) by making loans to banks.
But in order to achieve its goals, the central bank can use its conventional tools which are:
1) The target range for the federal funds rate: which is the rate at which banks make
overnight loans.
2) The interest rate on excess reserves (IOER rate)
3) The rate for discount window lending
Additionally, the central banks can use non-conventional tools such as:
1) Massive purchases of risky assets in fragile markets
2) Communicating its intent to keep interest rates low over an extended period
The central bank conventional toolbox
Usually, central banks set their policies by focusing its attention on prices rather than quantities.
The prices they focus are the following;
i) Interest rates: at which banks borrow and lend reserves overnight
ii) Interest rates that the central banks pay on reserves that banks hold at the central bank

The U.S. central banks have the following monetary policy rules:
1) To target federal funds rate range
2) The interest rate on excess reserves (IOER rate) target
3) The discount rate
4) The reserve requirement
The central bank tool box:
Tools What is it? How is it controlled? What is the impact?
federal funds rate Range for the interest Announced by the Influences interest
range charged by banks FOMC rates throughout the
economy
IOER rate Interest rate paid by the Announced by the Changes interest rates
central bank on excess FOMC at which banks will
reserves held by banks lend and borrow
Discount rate Interest rate charged by Set by the central bank Provides liquidity to
the central bank on its officials banks in times of
loans to banks crisis: it is not used to
change monetary
policy
Reserve Fraction of deposits Set by the central bank Influences the demand
Requirement that banks must keep officials for reserves; it is used
either on deposit at to change monetary
central bank or their policy
cash vaults

The federal funds rate and IOER rate

Day to day discrepancies between actual and desired reseves gave rise to a market for reserves,
with some banks’ lending their excess reserves and others borrowing to cover a shortfall in their
required reserves. Without this market, banks would have needed to hold substantial quantities of
excess reserves as insurance against shortfalls.
The demand for excess reserves has always been negatively related to the cost of holding them.
Since one of the closest alternatives to holding reserves has been an overnight loan to another
bank at the market federal funds rate. This interest rate remains a good proxy for the opportunity
cost of holding reserves. Hence, as the market federal funds rate rises, the lower the demand for
reserves.
The central bank continues to be the monopoly supplier of aggregate bank reserves. By buying or
selling securities in the market through an open market operation (OMO), the central bank could
increase or decrease the supply of reserves in order to lower or raise the market federal funds
rate.
If there is an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate, the central bank will raise the
IOER rate; raising the minimum rate at which banks are willing to lend. This allows the FOMC
to raise interest rates, tightening financial conditions, without altering the supply of reserves.
Discount lending
By controlling the quantity of loans it makes, a central bank can control:
i) The size of reserves
ii) The size of the monetary base
iii) Interest rates
For most of its history, the central bank loaned reserves to banks at a rate below the target federal
funds rate. Borrowing from the central bank was cheaper than borrowing from other banks.
Discount lending is the central bank’s primary tool for:
i) Ensuring short-term financial stability
ii) Eliminating bank panics
iii) Preventing the sudden collapse of institutions that are experiencing financial
difficulties
It is worth noting that the central bank is the lender of last resort: Making loans to banks when no
none else will or can. In this case, the Fed makes three types of loans which are:
1) Primary credit: is extended on a very short-term basis, usually overnight, to institutions
that the Fed’s bank supervisors deem to be sound. Banks seeking to borrow much post
acceptable collateral. The interest rate on primary credit is set at a spread above the IOER
rate called the primary discount rate. Primary credit adds to the central bank’s supply of
reserves to the banks
2) Secondary credit: is available to institutions that are not sufficiently sound to qualify for
primary credit because it is only provided to banks that are in trouble. Secondary credit is
for banks that are experiencing longer-term problems that they need some time to work
out. The secondary discount rate is set above the primary discount rate. There are two
reason a bank might seek secondary credit:
a) A temporary shortfall of reserves.
b) They cannot borrow from anyone else.
3) Seasonal credit: is used primarily by small agricultural banks in the Midwest to help in
managing the cyclical nature of farmers’ loans and deposits. Historically, these banks had
poor access to national money markets.

Reserve requirement
Changes in the reserve requirement affect the money multiplier and the quantity of money and
credit circulating in the economy. This is the minimum level of reserves banks must hold either
as vault cash or on deposit at the central bank. So, by adjusting the reserve requirement, the
central bank can influence the economic activity.
Operational Policy at the European Central Bank
Similar to other central banks, the ECB’s monetary policy toolbox contains the following:
a) An overnight interbank rate (equivalent to the federal funds rate)
b) A rate at which the central banks lends to commercial banks (equivalent to the discount
rate)
c) A reserve deposit rate (equivalent to the IOER)
d) A reserve requirement
The ECB’s Target Interest Rate and Open Market Operations
The ECB now frequently uses outright purchases of securities to inject reserves into the banking
system. But, prior to 2012, it provided reserves through collateralized loans in what are called
refinancing operation. The main operation was a weekly auction of repurchase agreements (repo)
in which ECB, through the National Central Banks, provided reserves to banks in exchange for
securities, and then reversed the transaction up to three weeks later.

The Marginal Lending Facility

The ECB’s marginal lending facility is the analog to the Fed’s primary credit facility. Through
this the ECB provides overnight loans to banks at a rate that is normally well above the target-
refinancing rate. The spread between the marginal lending rate and the target refinancing rate is
set by the Governing Council. Commercial banks initiate these borrowing transactions when they
face a reserve deficiency that they cannot satisfy more cheaply in the marketplace.

The Deposit Facility

Banks with excess reserves at the end of the day can deposit them overnight in the ECB’s
Deposit Facility at an interest rate substantially below the target-refinancing rate. The rate paid
by the deposit facility is set by the ECB Governing Council. Because, a bank can always deposit
its excess reserves in the riskless deposit facility, it will never make a loan at a lower rate.
Therefore, the deposit facility places a floor under the market interest rate charged on loans made
by banks.

Reserve Requirements
The ECB requires that banks hold minimum reserves based on the level of their liabilities. The
reserve requirement of 1% is applied to deposits and debt securities with maturities up to two
years. The level of these liabilities is averaged over a month, and reserve levels must be held
over the following month. The European system is designed to give the ECB tight control over
the short-term money market in the euro area. The overnight cash rate is the European analog to
the market federal funds rate.

Linking Tools to Objectives: Making Choices

Monetary policymakers use the various tools they have in order to meet the objectives society
gives them. These objectives or goals are:
a) Low and stable inflation
b) High and stable growth
c) A stable financial system
d) Stable interest rates and
e) Stable exchange rates
A consensus has developed among monetary policy experts that:
i) The reserve requirement is not useful as an operational instrument,
ii) Central bank lending is necessary to ensure financial stability, and
iii) Short-term interest rates are the conventional tool to use to stabilize short-term
fluctuations in prices and output.

Desirable Features of a Policy Instrument

A good monetary policy instrument has three features:
i) It is easily observable by everyone.
ii) It is controllable and quickly changed.
iii) It is tightly linked to the policymakers’ objectives.
A policy tool wouldn’t be very useful if you couldn’t observe it, control it, or predict its impact
on your objectives. There is a very good reason that the leading central banks in the world today
choose to target an interest rate rather than some quantity on their balance sheet. Interest rates are
the primary linkage between the financial system and the real economy, so stabilizing growth
means keeping interest rates from being overly volatile.

Inflation Targeting
When central banks focus their attention on a well-articulated objective, they you get better
policy. During the 1990s, a number of countries adopted a policy framework called inflation
targeting in an effort to improve monetary policy performance.