This paper focuses on the macroeconomic and wealth effects of unconventional monetary policy. To this end, we estimate a Bayesian structural vector autoregression (B-SVAR) using U.S. monthly data for the post-Lehman Brothers' collapse period. We show that a positive shock to the growth rate of central bank reserves does not have a substantial impact on industrial production or consumer prices. However, it also gives a strong boost to asset prices, which is larger in magnitude for stock prices than for housing prices. Thus, unconventional monetary policy typically operates via portfolio-rebalancing effects. A VAR counterfactual exercise confirms the role of the shocks to the growth rate of central bank reserves in explaining the dynamics of the variables included in the system, especially in the case of asset prices. Finally, additional empirical assessments uncover an important change in the conduct of monetary policy from “standard” to “exceptional” times and the suitability of our model to capture such a structural transformation.

In this paper, we study the effects of government debt on macroeconomic aggregates in a non-Ricardian framework. We develop a microfounded framework that combines time-varying markups, endogenous labor supply, and overlapping generations based on infinitely lived families. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a new transmission mechanism for public debt through the countercyclical markup movements induced by external deep habits. We analyze the effects of a positive shock to public debt. We show that the interest rate rises, entailing higher markups and a fall in employment and consumption. Interestingly, even without capital, a crowding-out effect of government debt is obtained in the long run. In addition, we show that when prices are sticky, public debt has a short-run expansionary effect, which is strengthened by the presence of deep habits.