The impact of size, composition and duration of the central bank balance sheet on inflation expectations and market prices

We analyse the effects of announcements of changes in the Eurosystems balance sheet size, duration and composition on inflation expectations, the exchange rate and the 10-year euro area government bond yield, using local projections. We explicitly take into account interaction effects between the three balance sheet dimensions. We provide evidence for the duration extraction channel of monetary policy transmission, as we find that the bond yield is sensitive to the combined impact of shocks to balance sheet size and duration. The exchange rate is also affected by a joint size-duration shock. Moreover, the bond yield and exchange rate are sensitive to the joint effect of changes in size and composition. The results indicate that interactions between balance sheet dimensions matter.
 
Keywords: central banks and their policies, monetary policy.
JEL classifications: E58, E52.

Working paper no. 627