Doubly heterogeneous monetary spillovers

Abstract

Monetary spillovers are heterogeneous in two ways: how central banks generate them and how countries receive them. First, the Fed is mostly unique in its ability to affect other countries' financial markets, among ten developed central banks. This is noteworthy given the lack of data on other central banks' spillovers. This paper makes public a novel data set of these ten central banks' monetary shocks to support future research. Second, the Fed affects recipient countries in different ways, with the bonds and currencies of countries with high-interest rates reacting differently than those of low-rate countries. This can help shed light on theories around the Fed's spillovers, and this paper demonstrates how the exact pattern is inconsistent with models in which developed central banks react to the Fed.