Flow and Stock Effects of Large-Scale Treasury Purchases

Book excerpt: This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Using a panel of daily CUSIP-level data, the authors study the effects of the Federal Reserve¿s program to purchase $300 billion of U.S. Treasury coupon securities announced and implemented during 2009. The authors find that each purchase operation, on average, caused a decline in yields in the sector purchased of 3.5 basis points on the days when these purchases occurred (the ¿flow effect¿ of the program). In addition, the program as a whole resulted in a persistent downward shift in the yield curve of as much as 50 basis points (the ¿stock effect¿), with the largest impact in the 10- to 15-year sector. The coefficient patterns generally support a view of segmentation or imperfect substitution within the Treasury market. Charts and tables.