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Federal Reserve Communications and the Road to Transparency

RESEARCH Working Paper by Spencer Krane and Daniel Sullivan
US Capitol Building at sunset
Mike Stoll

A paper that honors the work of Michael H. Moskow in the Global Economy.

Introduction

In this paper, we provide a brief history of the changes in Fed communications and transparency — a process to which Michael Moskow made significant contributions, both at the system level and locally in the Seventh District, as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Key Findings

Over the past 25 years, the Federal Reserve has radically transformed its communications strategies with the dual aims of increasing the public’s understanding of the institution’s work and informing expectations for the path of monetary policy. The transformation has involved an increase in the volume and changes in the type of communication with the public about the goals of monetary policy and the actions that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) takes to achieve those goals.

In part, these changes reflect lessons from economic theory, which stress the importance of expectations of future policy for influencing the spending and saving decisions of households and businesses and the complications that uncertainty over the policy environment can present for the public’s decision making. These lessons highlight the importance of the Fed describing as clearly as possible the factors that will determine the future path of monetary policy.

In this paper, we provide a brief history of the changes in Fed communications and transparency — a process to which Michael Moskow made significant contributions, both at the system level and locally in the Seventh District, as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. As president of the Chicago Fed, Michael served on a number of subcommittees of the FOMC that were charged with improving the Fed’s public communications about monetary policy and was an advocate of explaining the Fed’s policy rationale to the public.

Michael H. Moskow Honorary Paper Series

This is part of the Michael H. Moskow Honorary Paper Series, which also includes:

About the Authors
Spencer Krane
Senior Vice President and Senior Research Advisor
Daniel Sullivan
Executive Vice President and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago