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Report
Why does overnight liquidity cost more than intraday liquidity?
In this paper, we argue that the observed difference in the cost of intraday and overnight liquidity is part of an optimal payments system design. In our environment, the interest charged on overnight liquidity affects output, while the cost of intraday liquidity only affects the distribution of resources between money holders and non-money holders. The low cost of intraday liquidity follows from the Friedman rule, but with respect to overnight liquidity, it is optimal to deviate from the Friedman rule. The cost differential simultaneously reduces the incentive to overuse money and encourages ...
Journal Article
Monetary aggregates and the rate of inflation
Some economists advocate focusing less emphasis on monetary aggregates because the relationship of monetary aggregates to the ultimate goals of monetary policy is less reliable now than in the past. But the stability of the relationship between money growth and inflation is a testable hypothesis. Joseph Haslag investigates whether money growth is currently as useful a predictor of inflation as it previously has been. He tests three different measures of money growth: the monetary base, M1 and M2. Haslag finds that the relationship remains stable over time. ; Haslag also finds that both the ...
Journal Article
Trends in income mobility
Report
Optimality of the Friedman rule in an overlapping generations model with spatial separation
We examine models with spatial separation and limited communication that have shown some promise toward resolving the disparity between theory and practice concerning optimal monetary policy; these models suggest that the Friedman rule may not be optimal. We show that intergenerational transfers play a key role in this result, the Friedman rule is a necessary condition for an efficient allocation in equilibrium, and the Friedman rule is chosen whenever agents can implement mutually beneficial arrangements. We conclude that in order for these models to resolve the aforementioned disparity, ...
Working Paper
Coyote crossings: the role of smugglers in illegal immigration and border enforcement
Illegal immigration and border enforcement in the United States have increased concomitantly for over thirty years. One interpretation is that U.S. border policies have been ineffective. We offer an alternative view, extending the current immigration-enforcement literature by incorporating both the practice of people smuggling and a role for non-wage income into a two-country, dynamic general equilibrium model. We state conditions under which two steady state equilibria exist: one with a low level of capital, but relatively little migration. We then analyze two shocks: a positive technology ...
Journal Article
Honest money is the best policy
Working Paper
Evaluating monetary base targeting rules
Working Paper
A comparison of alternative monetary environments