Global Effects of U.S. Monetary Policy: Is Unconventional Policy Different?

U.S. monetary policy can affect asset prices both in the United States and outside of the country as investors arbitrage away price differentials between assets with similar risk/reward characteristics. Since late 2008, however, the conventional tool for monetary policy in the United States?the federal funds rate?has been near zero. As a result, the Federal Reserve has turned to unconventional monetary policies to provide additional accommodation. These unconventional policies may have altered the response of asset prices to Fed policy. Berge and Cao show that changes in U.S. monetary policy are associated with movements in a variety of asset prices, both in the United States and abroad. Evidence of a change in the behavior of asset prices at the zero lower bound is mixed. The responses of asset prices within the United States to monetary policy do not appear to be different at the zero lower bound. However, some international asset prices do appear to react differently to policy announcements after 2007.