MICHAEL MCMAHON AWARDED AN ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANT

The Department of Economics congratulates Michael McMahon who has been awarded a Consolidator Grant for the project Monetary Economics and Communication: New Data, New Tools, New and Old Questions 

In the last 25 years, communication has become a core lever of monetary policy. This has important implications for academic research in monetary economics - an area intrinsically linked to the policy environment. The framework change raises new questions, and we must rethink how we empirically study existing questions. New approaches and data are needed.

This ground-breaking research agenda comprises of 6 pioneering projects across 3 related themes that emphasise the increasingly-important role of central bank communication in policy.

Theme I concerns the fundamental empirical question in monetary economics: what is the effect of monetary policy? 

Theme II examines the issue of monetary communication and expectations management.

The projects will:

(i) Test, for the first time, the Morris-Shin prediction that communication might overly-coordinate expectations formation.

(ii) Develop a rich, new high-frequency dataset of expectations for EU countries to enable us to better address the questions in this theme.

 (iii) Develop new surveys and pioneering research on the role of the communication in affecting expectations of the general public.

Theme III examines the complex interaction between monetary policy and uncertainty. 

Monetary policy both reacts to shocks to the economy, but it is also a source of policy uncertainty.  The theme will develop new indices of each type of uncertainty.

The novelty of the data and the complexity of analysing communication make this research program highly ambitious. Nonetheless, the importance of developing our academic understanding make this agenda incredibly high-return.

Further details about all of the projects awarded 2018 Consolidator Grants can be found on the ERC website at the link below:

ERC Consolidator Grants 2018