Monetary Transmission: The Federal Funds Rate and the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR)

This paper examines the effectiveness of a monetary transmission mechanism from the federal funds rate to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). In particular, the paper employs a co-integration and vector error correction models to examine the degree and the direction of pass-through from the federal funds rate to the LIBOR. Two sub-periods are selected, 1987:02-1994:01 and 1994:02-2002:05, in order to examine this relationship. Results indicate a significant co-integration relationship between the federal funds rate and the LIBOR for the first and second periods. However, in the second period, the two variables adjust differently to a deviation from equilibrium.