In recent years, after reducing their reference interest rates at nearly 0%, most central banks designed a variety of novel monetary policy tools to fight recessions, including communication strategies, credit policies, and large-scale asset purchases. These new measures often referred to as “unconventional” monetary policies. The objective of this BSE Intensive Course on Unconventional Monetary Policy is to provide participants with a thorough understanding of the state-of-the-art research on different types of unconventional policies, of their costs and benefits, and of their effects on financial and aggregate economic variables.

After an introductory overview of the main approaches proposed in the literature to study conventional and unconventional policies, the course will describe the different policy tools adopted by central banks in the aftermath of the recent financial crisis. Special attention will be devoted to illustrate the costs and benefits of alternative policy measures, such as credit facilities, large-scale asset purchases, exchange-rate policies and money financed fiscal expenditure.

The course will also discuss the main empirical techniques, and the main results obtained in the literature about the effects of monetary policy on financial assets and aggregate economic variables, with a special attention to the practical experience of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

The course faculty includes some of the leading academics and economists in the area of monetary policy, with extensive experience in policymaking institutions such as the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.