Nº 21-74: The Price of Money: How Collateral Policy Affects the Yield Curve

Central-bank collateral policy governs the convertibility of assets into central-bank money provided directly by the central bank. Focusing on government bonds, we develop clean identification of variation in such convertibility by exploiting differential treatment of same-country government bonds in the euro area. Combining difference-in-differences analysis with yield-curve modeling on four separate events, we show that reduced convertibility lifts yields, but with the effect tapering off at longer maturities. Our findings imply that central-bank money is priced in the market and that a central bank can move and shape the yield curve through collateral policy.