The Impact of Monetary Policy on Bond Returns Volatility: A Segmented Markets Approach

Bruce Mizrach and Filippo Occhino

Departmental Working Papers from Rutgers University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper assesses the contribution of monetary policy to bond returns volatility, assuming that the monetary authority controls the short-term nominal interest rate. We model exogenously the joint process for the aggregate endowment and the nominal interest rate, and we determine endogenously bond real returns. We introduce markets segmentation assuming that some households are permanently excluded from ¯nancial markets. With full participation, real returns are determined by the aggregate endow- ment only, so monetary policy can a®ect them only through its e®ect on the aggregate endowment. When markets are segmented, however, monetary policy has a direct liquidity effect on the participants' marginal utility, on the stochastic discount factor, and on real returns. The smaller the fraction of participants in the economy, the larger the impact of monetary policy. When the relative risk aversion parameter is set to values estimated in experimental micro studies, the full participation model cannot replicate bond returns volatility, while the segmented markets model can fully account for the apparent excess volatility of short-term bond returns.

Keywords: bond returns volatility; limited participation; segmented markets; monetary policy shocks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E44 E52 G12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2004-01-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-mon
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of Economics and Business 60, 2008, 485-501.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rut:rutres:200402

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