Optimal Simple Monetary and Fiscal Rules under Limited Asset Market Participation

The combination of limited asset market participation and consumption habits generates indeterminacy for empirically plausible calibrations of a business cycle model characterized by price and nominal wage rigidities. Equilibrium determinacy is restored by demand management policies based on simple fiscal rules. In this regard, fiscal control of nominal income growth is particularly effective. In addition the complementarity between the Taylor rule and the fiscal feedback on nominal income growth produces relatively large welfare gains, limiting both aggregate and intragroup volatilities

Limited asset market participation: does it really matter for monetary policy?

We study the design of monetary policy in an economy characterized by staggered wage and price contracts together with limited asset market participation (LAMP). Contrary to previous results, we find that once nominal wage stickiness, an incontrovertible empirical fact, is considered: i) the Taylor Principle is restored as a necessary condition for equilibrium determinacy for any empirically plausible degree of LAMP; ii) the implications of LAMP for the design of optimal monetary policy are minor; iii) optimal interest rate rules become active no matter the degree of asset market participation. For these reasons we argue that LAMP is not particularly important for monetary policy.optimal monetary policy; sticky wages; non-Ricardian household; determinacy; optimal simple rules

Monetary Policy in a Currency Union with Heterogeneous Limited Asset Markets Participation

This paper examines monetary policy in a currency union whose member countries exhibit heterogeneous rates of limited asset markets participation (LAMP). As a result risk sharing among member countries is imperfect and the monetary transmission mechanism can differ across countries. In the limit the elasticity of output to the union-wide nominal interest rate can be of opposite sign in different countries. I develop a tractable model in which the dispersion of asset markets participation (AMP) becomes a key parameter. While monetary policy can guarantee determinacy by following an active or passive rule depending on the sign of the interest-elasticity of output, ignoring dispersion can lead to incorrect computation of the sign and the size of the latter. Taking the heterogeneity into account is thus central for sound policy Furthermore, due to the failure of risk sharing, determinacy for union-aggregates does not guarantee determinacy in every member country. However, the more open a country is in trade terms, the greater the rate of LAMP for which the country still displays equilibrium determinacy. For complete openness, determinacy is guaranteed. This underlines the importance of risk sharing and trade integration for the functioning of a currency union. Considering the optimal union-wide targeting rule, a higher mean and dispersion of LAMP increase the desired inflation volatility and decrease the desired output volatility. The implied optimal Taylor rule shows that subject to the Taylor principle, the higher are mean and dispersion of LAMP, the softer should be the response of the nominal interest rate to expected inflation.Monetary Union, Limited Asset Markets Participation, Heterogeneity, (Optimal) Monetary Policy, Real (In)determinacy, Sticky Prices

Monetary Policy, Rule-of-Thumb Consumers and External Habits: An International Comparison

This paper extends the standard New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to agents who cannot smooth consumption (i.e. spenders) and are affected by external consumption habits. Although these assumptions are not new, their joint consideration strongly affects some theoretical and empirical results addressed by the recent literature. By deriving closed-form solutions, we identify different demand regimes and show that they are characterized by specific features regarding dynamic stability and monetary policy effectiveness. We also evaluate our model by stochastic simulations obtained from the Bayesian parameters estimates for the G7 economies. From posterior impulse response we address the empirical relevance of the different regimes and provide comparative evidence on the asymmetric effects of monetary policy, resulting from the heterogeneity of the estimated model structures.Rule-of-thumb, habits, monetary policy transmission, determinacy, New Keynesian

Designing monetary and Fiscal policy rules in a New Keynesian model with rule-of-thumb consumers

This paper develops a small New Keynesian model augmented with a steady state level of public debt and a share of rule-of-thumb consumers (ROTC henceforth) as in Gali' et al. (2004; 2007). The paper focuses on the consequences for the design of monetary and fiscal rules, of the bifurcation generated by the presence of ROTC on the demand side of the economy, in the absence of Ricardian equivalence. We find that, when fiscal policy follows a balanced budget rule, the amount of ROTC determines whether an active and/or a passive monetary policy in the sense of Leeper (1991) guarantees determinacy. When short run public debt assets are introduced, the amount of ROTC determines whether equilibrium determinacy requires a mix of active (passive) monetary policy and a passive (active) fiscal policy or a mix where policies are both active or passive. This set of equilibria has the potential to explain the empirical evidence on the U.S. postwar data on monetary and fiscal policy interactions.Rule-of-thumb consumers, monetary-?scal iteractions, balanced budget rule, Taylor principle, active-passive policy mix

Policy Games with Liquidity Constrained Consumers

We investigate the optimal responses of policy authorities through a model where the fiscal and the monetary policymakers are independent and play strategically. We allow for the presence of two types of consumers: ‘Ricardians’, who trade in the assets market and ‘liquidity constrained’ consumers, who spend all their disposable labor income for consumption. We find that not only the different game structures but mainly the presence of ‘liquidity constrained’ consumers is crucial in determining the optimal responses of policies. In particular, for high enough fractions of liquidity constrained consumers the way policies react to cope with a mark-up shock change significantly and the role of fiscal policy becomes more relevant.policy games; optimal monetary and fiscal policy; liquidity constrained consumers;

Heterogeneous consumers, demand regimes, monetary policy and equilibrium determinacy

This paper investigates the effects of monetary policy in presence of heterogeneous consumers. We study the effectiveness (quantitative effects) of monetary policy and equilibrium determinacy properties of a New Keynesian DSGE model where a fraction of households cannot smooth consumption. We show that two-demand regimes can emerge (according to the “slope” of IS curve) and that the main unconventional results, stressed by recent literature, only hold in the unconventional case of an IS curve positively sloped.Heterogeneous consumers, liquidity constraints, determinacy, demand regimes

Monetary Policy, Rule-of-Thumb Consumers and External Habits: A G7 Comparison

This paper extends the standard New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to agents who cannot smooth consumption (i.e. spenders) and are affected by external consumption habits. Although these assumptions are not new, their joint consideration strongly affects some theoretical and empirical results addressed by the recent literature. By deriving closed-form solutions, we identify different demand regimes and show that they are characterized by specific features regarding dynamic stability and monetary policy effectiveness. We also evaluate our model by stochastic simulations obtained from the Bayesian parameters estimates for the G7 economies. From posterior impulse responses we address the empirical relevance of the different regimes and provide comparative evidence on the heterogeneity of monetary policy effects among countries.Rule-of-thumb, habits, monetary policy transmission, determinacy, New Keynesian DSGE model, monetary policy, Monte Carlo Bayesian estimators.

Money Targeting, Heterogeneous Agents and Dynamic Instability

Christiano et al. (2005) have shown that a standard medium-sized DSGE model can successfully replicate VAR IRFs to a money supply shock. This important result vanishes under limited asset market partic- ipation. Further, even a moderate fraction of constrained consumers is su¢ cient to dampen the real interest rate reaction to inflation, thereby causeing instability. The introduction of a simple fiscal automatic sta- bilizer restores stability and improves the dynamic performance of the model.Rule of Thumb Consumers, DSGE, Determinacy, Limited Asset, Market Participation