This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate.Reconciling the high frequency of price changes at the micro level and their apparent rigidity at the aggregate level has been the subject of considerable debate in macroeconomics recently. In this paper I show that incorporating production chains in a standard New-Keynesian model replicates two stylized facts about the data. First, sectoral prices respond with significantly different speeds to aggregate shocks. Meanwhile, the responses to sectorspecific shocks are similar. Second, the standard price setting models are unable to quantitatively match the amount of monetary non-neutrality observed in the data. I argue, First, that the input-output linkages in production generate different responses to aggregate shocks across sectors. Second, calibrating this model to the US data can create five times more monetary non-neutrality in response to nominal shocks compared to an equivalent homogeneous economy with intermediate inputs. Finally, the model implies that upstream industries respond faster to aggregate shocks compared to downstream industries. I show that this prediction is supported by the data.

We compare the effectiveness of Federal Reserve's asset purchase programs in lowering longterm yields with that of similar programs implemented by the Bank of England, the Swedish Riksbank, and the Swiss National Bank's reserve expansion program. We decompose government bond yields into (i) an expectations component, (ii) a global, and (iii) a country specific term premium to analyze two-day changes in 10-year yields around announcement dates. We find that, in contrast to the Federal Reserve's asset purchases, the programs implemented in these smaller economies have not been able to affect the global term premium and, furthermore, they have had limited, but significant, effect in lowering long-term yields.

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IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

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