My PhD research will involve investigating Federal Reserve monetary policy in every US business cycle (excluding the WWII period) since 1919. My aim in conducting the research is to gather together and provide extensive qualitative and quantitative evidence surrounding the timings and stances of Federal Reserve monetary policy. From there I plan to analyse the subsequent impact of the timings and stances of Federal Reserve monetary policy on various macroeconomic variables throughout the last century. I intend to do this by evaluating Federal Reserve monetary policy using monetary aggregate, discount rate and interest rate variables (both in nominal and real terms) against various macroeconomic indicators (which include inflation, unemployment, the output gap, industrial production, and real output). I am also looking to evaluate the Fed’s monetary policy timing using vigorous econometric analysis and the Fed’s monetary policy stances using modified versions of the Taylor, McCallum and Friedman K-Percent rules.
