Overview
Ben S. Bernanke is an economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006–2014) and received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2022 (with Diamond and Dybvig) for research on banks and financial crises. In macroeconometrics, his work with Ilian Mihov on identifying monetary policy shocks (Bernanke-Mihov 1998a,b) is a foundational contribution to VAR-based monetary policy analysis.
Key Contributions / Features
- Bernanke-Mihov (1998a) "Measuring Monetary Policy" (Quarterly Journal of Economics 113(3): 869–902): Identified monetary policy shocks using a model of the Fed's operating procedures, allowing the policy instrument to be a combination of reserves and the federal funds rate rather than assuming a fixed instrument. Data series from this paper became the benchmark dataset for VAR studies of monetary transmission.
- Bernanke-Mihov (1998b) (Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 49): Extended the identification framework; this version of the data (6-variable VAR: real GDP, GDP deflator, commodity prices, total reserves, nonborrowed reserves, federal funds rate, 1965–1996 monthly) is the dataset Uhlig (2004) extends through 2003 for his sign-restriction analysis.
- Federal Reserve Chairman (2006–2014): Managed the Fed's response to the 2007–2009 financial crisis, applying academic research on the Great Depression and bank runs.
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