The Measurement of Monetary Policy

The material in this book reflects, in many respects, the culmination of several years of research regarding the measurement of monetary policy. On all the issues addressed in the text, I have thus attempted to provide a perspective of the type that can only be gained from "living with" a topic over an extended time horizon. I have often said that I came to understand the monetary indicators literature only after having written dozens of papers on the subject. This statement may seem a bit trite, but I feel certain that anyone who has waded through this morass (or at least tried to) can fully empathize and recognize the grain of truth therein. It is my sincere hope that the synthesis given in the work will calm the fears and anxieties that often (and understandably) plague beginners in this field. In settling down to the process of "pulling together" this manuscript, I was surprised to find the ease and consistency with which various topics, explored at widely diverse times and in no particular order, meshed into a unified whole. I attempted to write the book in a manner that would simultaneously be generally comprehensible to students (particularly at the graduate level) and to practitioners desiring a relatively thorough overview of the indicators literature and yet be of value to scholars desiring to explore (and hopefully advance) this field.