Search Results
Working Paper
Imperfect credibility and inflation persistence
In this paper, we formulate a dynamic general equilibrium model with staggered nominal contracts, in which households and firms use optimal filtering to disentangle persistent and transitory shifts in the monetary policy rule. The calibrated model accounts quite well for the dynamics of output and inflation during the Volcker disinflation, and implies a sacrifice ratio very close to the estimated value. Our approach indicates that inflation persistence and substantial costs of disinflation can be generated in an optimizing-agent framework, without relaxing the assumption of rational ...
Working Paper
Tradeoffs between inflation and output-gap variances in an optimizing-agent model
We demonstrate the existence of a monetary policy tradeoff between price-inflation variability and output-gap variability in an optimizing-agent model with staggered nominal wage and price contracts. This variance tradeoff is absent only in the special case in which prices are sticky and wages are perfectly flexible. When the model is calibrated to exhibit an empirically reasonable degree of nominal wage inertia, strict inflation targeting induces substantial output-gap volatility.
Working Paper
Data uncertainty and the role of money as an information variable for monetary policy
This paper demonstrates that money can play an important role as an information variable and may result in major improvements in current output estimates. However, the specific nature of this role depends on the magnitude of the output measurement error relative to the money demand shock. In particular, we find noticeable but small improvements in output estimates due to the inclusion of money growth in the information set. Money plays a quantitatively more important role with regard to output estimation if we allow for a contribution of monetary analysis in reducing uncertainty due to money ...
Working Paper
Inferences from parametric and non-parametric covariance matrix estimation procedures
We propose a parametric spectral estimation procedure for contructing heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (HAC) covariance matrices. We establish the consistency of this procedure under very general conditions similar to those considered in previous research. We also perform Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate the performance of this procedure in drawing reliable inferences from linear regression estimates. These simulations indicate that the parametric estimator matches, and in some cases greatly exceeds, the performance of the prewhitened kernel estimator proposed by Andrews ...
Working Paper
The performance of forecast-based monetary policy rules under model uncertainty
We investigate the performance of forecast-based monetary policy rules using five macroeconomic models that reflect a wide range of views on aggregate dynamics. We identify the key characteristics of rules that are robust to model uncertainty: such rules respond to the one-year ahead inflation forecast and to the current output gap, and incorporate a substantial degree of policy inertia. In contrast, rules with longer forecast horizons are less robust and are prone to generating indeterminacy. In light of these results, we identify a robust benchmark rule that performs very well in all five ...
Working Paper
Is inflation persistence intrinsic in industrial economies?
We apply both classical and Bayesian econometric methods to characterize the dynamic behavior of inflation for twelve industrial countries over the period 1984-2003, using four different price indices for each country. In particular, we estimate a univariate autoregressive (AR) model for each series, and consider the possibility of a structural break at an unknown date. For many of these countries, we find strong evidence for a break in the intercept of the AR equation in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Allowing for a break in intercept, the inflation measures generally exhibit relatively low ...
Working Paper
Diagnosing and treating bifurcations in perturbation analysis of dynamic macro models
In perturbation analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems, the presence of a bifurcation implies that the first-order behavior of the economy cannot be characterized solely in terms of the first-order derivatives of the model equations. In this paper, we use two simple examples to illustrate how to detect the existence of a bifurcation. Following the general approach of Judd (1998), we then show how to apply l'Hospital's rule to characterize the solution of each model in terms of its higher-order derivatives. We also show that in some cases the bifurcation can be eliminated through ...
Working Paper
Robust monetary policy with competing reference models
The literature on robust monetary policy rules has largely focused on the case in which the policymaker has a single reference model while the true economy lies within a specified neighborhood of the reference model. In this paper, we show that such rules may perform very poorly in the more general case in which non-nested models represent competing perspectives about controversial issues such as expectations formation and inflation persistence. Using Bayesian and minimax strategies, we then consider whether any simple rule can provide robust performance across such divergent representations ...
Working Paper
Are long-run inflation expectations anchored more firmly in the Euro area than in the United States?
This paper compares the recent evolution of long-run inflation expectations in the euro area and the United States, using evidence from financial markets and surveys of professional forecasters. Survey data indicate that long-run inflation expectations are reasonably well-anchored in both economies, but also reveal substantially greater dispersion across forecasters' long-horizon projections of U.S. inflation. Daily data on inflation swaps and nominal-indexed bond spreads--which gauge compensation for expected inflation and inflation risk--also suggest that long-run inflation expectations are ...
Working Paper
Robustness of simple monetary policy rules under model uncertainty
In this paper, we investigate the properties of alternative monetary policy rules using four structural macroeconometric models: the Fuhrer-Moore model, Taylor's Multi-Country Model, the MSR model of Orphanides and Wieland, and the FRB staff model. All four models incorporate the assumptions of rational expectations, short-run nominal inertia, and long-run monetary neutrality, but differ in many other respects (e.g., the dynamics of prices and real expenditures). We compute the output-inflation volatility frontier of each model for alternative specifications of the interest rate rule, subject ...