Search Results
Journal Article
Consumer attitudes: king for a day
Journal Article
Reducing our ignorance about monetary policy effects
Business news often gives the impression that the effects of monetary policy on the macroeconomy are well understood and predictable. The author of this article, however, believes that, far from sharing such certainty, policymakers and economists alike have knowledge limited by difficulties in sorting out causal factors in economic data. He holds that monetary policy effects are neither well understood nor easily predicted. ; The article presents five models of private and monetary policy behavior in the United States. Identical policy experiments--an unanticipated one-time monetary policy ...
Journal Article
Assessing simple policy rules: A view from a complete macroeconomic model
Monetary policy analysts looking for a model on which to base decisions may consider two popular approaches-the New Keynesian (NK) and the identified vector autoregression (VAR) approaches. Choosing between the two can be difficult: NK models are stylized and have simple rules while structural VAR models have complex dynamics and loose behavioral interpretations. ; The simpler NK models often produce stark conclusions. For example, NK analyses consistently find that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy has improved markedly in the past two decades compared with the 1960s and 1970s. In ...
Working Paper
Modest policy interventions
This paper brings together identification and forecasting in a positive econometric analysis of policy. We contend that a broad range of important policy questions is consistent with the existing policy process and is not subject to Lucas's critique. We analyze the economics of "business as usual" and show that modest policy interventions, whose effects can be projected even if expectations are modeled as depending solely on past policy, can address routine questions like those raised at regular policy meetings. And modest interventions matter: they can shift the projected paths and ...