The effect of central bank credibility on forward guidance in an estimated New Keynesian model

This paper examines the effectiveness of forward guidance shocks in the US. We estimate a New Keynesian model with imperfect central bank credibility and heterogeneous expectations using Bayesian methods and survey data from the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF). The results provide important takeaways: (1) The estimated credibility of the Fed’s forward guidance announcements is relatively high, but anticipation effects are attenuated. Accordingly, output and inflation do not respond as favorably as in the fully credible counterfactual. (2) The so-called “forward guidance puzzle” arises partly from the unrealistically large responses of macroeconomic variables to forward guidance under perfect credibility and homogeneous fully informed rational expectations, assumptions which are found to be jointly inconsistent with the observed US data. (3) Imperfect credibility provides a plausible explanation for the empirical evidence of forecasting error predictability based on forecasting disagreement found in the SPF data. Thus, we show that accounting for imperfect credibility and forecasting disagreements is important to understand the formation of expectations and the transmission mechanism of forward guidance.

SECTORAL LABOR MOBILITY AND OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY

How should central banks optimally aggregate sectoral inflation rates in the presence of imperfect labor mobility across sectors? We study this issue in a two-sector New-Keynesian model and show that a lower degree of sectoral labor mobility, ceteris paribus, increases the optimal weight on inflation in a sector that would otherwise receive a lower weight. We analytically and numerically find that, with limited labor mobility, adjustment to asymmetric shocks cannot fully occur through the reallocation of labor, thus putting more pressure on wages, causing inefficient movements in relative prices, and creating scope for central bank’ s intervention. These findings challenge standard central banks’ practice of computing sectoral inflation weights based solely on sector size and unveil a significant role for the degree of sectoral labor mobility to play in the optimal computation. In an extended estimated model of the US economy, featuring customary frictions and shocks, the estimated inflation weights imply a decrease in welfare up to 10% relative to the case of optimal weights.

Monetary Policy and Asset Price Gap Signal Technology in a New Keynesian Framework

This article develops a New Keynesian model in which the inflation rate depends on the present value of future output gaps and asset prices gaps. The latter follows a price adjustment process. These asset price gaps are driven by ‛asset price gap signal technology’, a measure of exponentially distributed asset price gaps with a signalling mechanism. Within a dynamic stochastic optimisation approach, I identify a policy rule for the central bank in which the asset price gap the difference between the actual asset price at time t to its fundamental value plays a crucial role in determining the nominal rate of interest.

Effects of trend inflation on monetary policy and fiscal policy shocks in Vietnam

PurposeThis paper analyzes variations in effects of monetary and fiscal shocks on responses of macroeconomic variables, determinacy region and welfare costs due to changes in trend inflation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develops the New-Keynesian model, which the central banks can employ either nominal interest rate (IR rule) or money supply (MS rule) to conduct monetary policies. They also use their budgets for capital and recurrent spending to conduct fiscal policies. By using simulated method of moment (SMM) for parameter estimation, the authors characterize Vietnam's economy during 1996Q1 -2015Q1.FindingsThe results report that consequences of monetary policy and fiscal policy shocks become more serious if there is a rise in trend inflation. Furthermore, the money supply might not be an effective instrument and using the government budget for recurrent spending produces severe consequences in the high-trend-inflation economy.Originality/valueThis is the first paper that examines the effects of trend inflation on the monetary and fiscal policy implementation in the case of Vietnam.

The Young, the Old, and the Government: Demographics and Fiscal Multipliers

We document that government spending multipliers depend on the population age structure. Using the variation in military spending and birth rates across US states, we show that the local fiscal multiplier is 1.5 and increases with the population share of young people, implying multipliers of 1.1–1.9 in the interquartile range. A parsimonious life cycle open economy New Keynesian model with credit market imperfections and age-specific differences in labor supply and demand explains 87 percent of the relationship between local multipliers and demographics. The model implies that the US population aging between 1980 and 2015 caused a 38 percent drop in national government spending multipliers. (JEL D15, E12, E24, E62, J11, J22, J23)