Abstract:
This dissertation is composed of three essays that measure the impact of monetary policy on non-bank credit activity by issuer, composition, and duration. The first essay measures the dynamic impact of monetary policy on gross repurchase agreement activity of primary government dealers of the Federal Reserve System. The second essay measures the dynamic impact of monetary policy on commercial paper activity. The third essay measures the impact of monetary policy on issuers of asset-backed securities. In the first essay, we find a positive shock to the federal funds rate significantly affects the level of credit activity. In particular, repo arrangements longer than a day display persistent declines. By comparison, overnight financing increases after a delay. This implies that contractionary monetary policy shocks lead to maturity substitution in the repo market. Our findings show that credit activity in the repo market is more sensitive to monetary policy than previously reported in the literature. In the second essay, our measure of contractionary monetary policy shocks corresponds to a sharp decline in money market mutual fund assets. Though there is an increase in aggregate commercial paper volumes, the impact of monetary policy is stronger for issuers with less liquid balance sheets. Specifically, issuers of asset-backed paper and issuers with second tier credit ratings. Furthermore, there is evidence of a broad substitution towards shorter maturities, in particular for asset backed and nonfinancial paper. In the final essay, we find that an anticipated increase in the target for the federal funds rate impacts the behavior of ABS issuers. In particular, we find commercial paper issuance rises while bond issuance falls. Consequently, our results support the existence of a liquidity risk channel for monetary policy operating through the total supply of non-bank credit activity. In this manner, our findings indicate the monetary transmission mechanism contributes to systemic risk in the shadow banking system through rollover risk. As a result, non-bank credit activity is an important component of the relationship between monetary policy and financial stability.
