Why do T-bill rates react to discount rate changes?

Daniel Thornton

No 1992-004, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: This paper investigates the hypothesis suggested by Cook and Hahn (1988) that the T-bill rates respond to the announcement of discount rate changes because the market takes discount rate changes to be a signal that the Fed has changed its target for the federal funds rate. Re-Interpreting Cook and Hahn's empirical evidence and using theirs and an alternative methodology, we show that the evidence cannot differentiate their hypothesis from a number of others that have been suggested in the literature. We further find that there is no difference in the relative magnitude or timing of the response during periods when the Fed was directly targeting the funds rate or using a \"fuzzy\" funds rate target. This result suggests that the market does not simply interpret discount rate changes as a signal that the Fed has changed its target for the funds rate.

Keywords: Discount (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, November 1994

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why Do T-Bill Rates React to Discount Rate Changes? (1994)
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