Central banks responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with large-scale purchases of bonds, commercial paper, and other financial assets. In some cases, central banks announced “open-ended” programs, with no explicit limits on the scale or duration of asset purchases. Did these open-ended interventions have larger effects on interest rates? On exchange rates? Is this type of purposeful policy vagueness useful in the conduct of monetary policy? If so, why? And when? Join Steven Davis and guest Kathryn Dominguez as they discuss these issues and consider the wisdom of “open-endedness” in central bank policy pronouncements. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS: Kathryn Dominguez is a professor of public policy and economics at the Gerald. R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She serves on the Panel of Economic Advisers at the Congressional Budget Office, the Advisory Panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University, and taught at Harvard before joining the Michigan faculty in 1997. Her research focuses on macroeconomics and global financial markets, with particular emphasis on the determinants of cross-border financial flows, macroeconomic forecasting, foreign exchange rate intervention policies, and the management of international reserves. Her recent work examines asks whether whatever-it-takes policymaking by central banks during the pandemic had larger effects than traditional expansionary policies with explicit limits on scale. Steven J. Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, advisor to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, past editor of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the US Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Previously, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty. ABOUT THE SERIES: Each episode of the video podcast series Economics, Applied features senior fellow Steven Davis in conversation with leaders and researchers about economic developments and their ramifications. The goal is to bring evidence and economic reasoning to the table, drawing lessons for individuals, organizations, and society. The podcast also aims to showcase the value of individual initiative, markets, the rule of law, and sound policy in fostering prosperity and security. For more information, visit https://www.hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied. RELATED RESOURCES: • Whatever-It-Takes Policymaking during the Pandemic: https://www.nber.org/papers/w32115 • Kathryn Dominguez personal website: https://websites.umich.edu/~kathrynd/ The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. © 2024 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.