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Working Paper
Monetary Policy over the Life Cycle
A tighter monetary policy is generally associated with higher real interest rates on depositsand loans, weaker performance of equities and real estate, and slower growth in employment andwages. How does a household’s exposure to monetary policy vary with its age? The size andcomposition of both household income and asset portfolios exhibit large variation over the lifecycle inJapanese data. We formulate an overlapping generations model that reproduces these observationsand use it to analyze how household responses to monetary policy shocks vary over the lifecycle. Boththe signs and the ...
Working Paper
Why Aging Induces Deflation and Secular Stagnation
We provide a quantitative theory of deflation and secular stagnation. In our lifecycle framework, an aging population puts persistent downward pressure on the price level, real interest rates, and output. A novel feature of our theory is that it also recognizes the reactions of government policy. The central bank responds to falling prices by reducing its policy nominal interest rate, and the fiscal authority responds by allowing the public debt–gross domestic product ratio to rise.