Unsurprising shocks: information, premia, and the monetary transmission

Working papers set out research in progress by our staff, with the aim of encouraging comments and debate.
Published on 04 November 2016

Staff Working Paper No. 626

By Silvia Miranda-Agrippino

This article studies the information content of monetary surprises, ie the reactions of financial markets to monetary policy announcements. We find that monetary surprises are predictable by past information, and can incorporate anticipatory effects. Surprises are decomposed into monetary policy shocks, forecast updates, and time-varying risk premia, all of which can change following the announcements. Hence, their use as identification devices is not warranted, and can have strong qualitative and quantitative implications for the estimated responses of variables to the shocks. We develop new measures for monetary policy shocks, independent of central banks’ forecasts and unpredictable by past information.

This version was updated in August 2023.

Unsurprising shocks: information, premia, and the monetary transmission

This is an online appendix to Staff Working Paper No. 626.

Appendix to Unsurprising shocks: information, premia, and the monetary transmission