Panacea, Curse, or Nonevent? Unconventional Monetary Policy in the United Kingdom
August 1, 2009
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Summary
The Bank of England's current "quantitative easing" strategy has given rise to a controversial debate about the effects and risks of unconventional monetary policy. The present paper makes two contributions to this debate. First, it provides a systematic overview of unconventional policy options, drawing from existing theoretical and empirical studies. Against this backdrop, it then analyzes the BoE's specific policies, discussing their effectiveness so far and putting them into a cross-country context. Tentative evidence on the BoE's quantitative easing is moderately encouraging, although the strategy is neither guaranteed to succeed nor as perilous as some of its detractors claim.
Subject: Banking, Central bank policy rate, Inflation, Monetary base, Unconventional monetary policies
Keywords: asset purchase, commercial paper, government bond, private sector, quantitative easing, WP
Pages:
47
Volume:
2009
DOI:
Issue:
163
Series:
Working Paper No. 2009/163
Stock No:
WPIEA2009163
ISBN:
9781451873108
ISSN:
1018-5941
