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How New Fed Corporate Bond Programs Dampened the Financial Accelerator in the COVID-19 Recession

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  • Michael D. Bordo
  • John V. Duca

Abstract

In the financial crisis and recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, many investment-grade firms became unable to borrow from securities markets. In response, the Fed not only reopened its commercial paper funding facility but also announced it would purchase newly issued and seasoned bonds of corporations rated as investment grade before the COVID pandemic. A careful splicing of different unemployment rate series enables us to assess the effectiveness of recent Fed interventions in these long-term debt markets over long sample periods, spanning the Great Depression, Great Recession and COVID Recession. Findings indicate that the announcement of forthcoming corporate bond backstop facilities had helped stop risk premia from rising further than they had by late-March 2020. In doing so, these Fed facilities have limited the role of external finance premia in amplifying the macroeconomic impact of the COVID pandemic. Nevertheless, the corporate bond programs blend the roles of the Federal Reserve in conducting monetary policy via its balance sheet, acting as a lender of last resort and pursuing credit policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Bordo & John V. Duca, 2020. "How New Fed Corporate Bond Programs Dampened the Financial Accelerator in the COVID-19 Recession," Working Papers 2029, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:feddwp:89114
    DOI: 10.24149/wp2029
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    2. Michael D. Bordo & Mickey D. Levy, 2020. "Do Enlarged Fiscal Deficits Cause Inflation: The Historical Record," NBER Working Papers 28195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Imdade Chitou & Gilles Dufrénot & Julien Esposito, 2021. "Linking Covid-19 epidemic and emerging market OAS: Evidence using dynamic copulas and Pareto distributions," Working Papers halshs-03297198, HAL.
    4. Pontus Braunerhjelm, 2022. "Rethinking stabilization policies; Including supply-side measures and entrepreneurial processes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 963-983, February.
    5. Chen, Zhuo & Li, Pengfei & Liao, Li & Liu, Lu & Wang, Zhengwei, 2024. "Assessing and addressing the coronavirus-induced economic crisis: Evidence from 1.5 billion sales invoices," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    6. Ryan A. Decker & Robert J. Kurtzman & Byron F. Lutz & Christopher J. Nekarda, 2021. "Across the Universe: Policy Support for Employment and Revenue in the Pandemic Recession," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 267-271, May.
    7. Bordo, Michael D. & Duca, John V., 2022. "How new Fed corporate bond programs cushioned the Covid-19 recession," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Segarra-Blasco, Agustí & Teruel, Mercedes & Cattaruzzo, Sebastiano, 2021. "The economic reaction to non-pharmaceutical interventions during Covid-19," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 592-608.
    9. Barbiero, Francesca & Burlon, Lorenzo & Dimou, Maria & Toczynski, Jan, 2022. "Targeted monetary policy, dual rates and bank risk taking," Working Paper Series 2682, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial crises; Federal Reserve; credit easing; lenders of last resort; corporate bonds; corporate bond facility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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