Liquidity Trap Prevention and Escape: A Simple Proposition

Abstract

Liquidity traps occur when the natural nominal interest rate becomes negative. In a model with capital price dynamics explicitly considered, we find that shocks in the future can cause current and lasting liquidity traps. We propose that the central bank can prevent or fix liquidity traps by appending to its inflation-targeting monetary policy with a prioritized promise to defend a lower bound of nominal capital price. (JEL E31, E43, E44, E52, E58, E61, G12) Keywords: Liquidity traps; Zero interest bound; Asset Prices; Lower capital price boundLiquidity traps; Zero interest bound; Asset Prices; Lower capital price bound