Search, money, and inflation under private information

I study monetary exchange and inflation when buyers have private information about their willingness to pay for certain goods. Introducing imperfect information in the Lagos-Wright [A unified framework for monetary theory and policy analysis, J. Polit. Economy 113(3) (2005) 463-484] economy shows that the existence of monetary equilibrium is a more robust feature of the environment. In general, my model has a monetary steady state in which only a proportion of the agents hold money. Agents who do not hold money cannot participate in trade in the decentralized market. The proportion of agents holding money is endogenous and depends (negatively) on the level of expected inflation. As in Lagos and Wright's model, in equilibrium there is a positive welfare cost of expected inflation, but the origins of this cost are very different.     

Policy trade-off in the long run: A new Keynesian model with technological change and money growth

In this study, we introduce a constant rate of technological change and money growth into the standard new Keynesian model, in which both prices and nominal wages are supposed to be sticky. Using such a model, we examine whether a policy trade-off exists between curbing inflation and stabilizing the welfare-relevant output gap in the steady state. If we take only price stickiness into consideration, a policy trade-off does not occur. However, if both nominal wage stickiness and price stickiness are taken into consideration, a policy trade-off occurs.     

Time-varying money demand and real balance effects

This paper presents an analysis of the stimulants and consequences of money demand dynamics. By assuming that household's money holdings and consumption preferences are not separable, we demonstrate that the interest-elasticity of demand for money is a function of the household's preference to hold real balances, the extent to which these preferences are not separable in consumption and real balances, and trend inflation. An empirical study of U.S. data revealed that there was a gradual fall in the interest elasticity of money demand of approximately one-third during the 1970s due to high trend inflation. A further decline in the interest-elasticity of the demand for money was observed in the 1980s due to the changing household preferences that emerged in response to financial innovation. These developments led to a reduction in the welfare cost of inflation that subsequently explains the rise in monetary neutrality observed in the data.     

Progressive taxation and human capital as determinants of inflation persistence

In this study, we introduce progressive taxation and human capital differences across productive sectors into a typical monetary policy game. The objective of this work is to reveal the potential short-run effects of these two typical features of economic growth on inflation dynamics. In our framework, such features act as frictions of labor mobility across sectors. We show that an increased progressivity of taxation lowers the diffusion of shocks, and in turn increases inflation persistence. Moreover, the dispersion of human capital across sectors acts as a barrier to labor mobility and thereby increasing inflation inertia through the same channel. We also empirically verify these findings by employing panel data analysis in a sample of 28 OECD countries.     

Low‐inflation Targeting and Long‐run Unemployment*

The model of Akerlof, Dickens and Perry (2000) (ADP) predicts that low inflation may cause unemployment to persist at high levels. When applied to U.S. data, their results strongly rejected the conventional NAIRU model. We apply the ADP model to Swedish data. The fact that our Swedish data also reject the NAIRU model has a number of interesting implications for the Swedish economy and, potentially, for other European countries as well. The results indicate that raising the Swedish inflation target from 2 to 4 percent would bring long‐run unemployment down by several percentage points. The possibility of ADP‐type long‐run Phillips curves also across the euro countries may raise some concern about the EMU project. While detailed studies on other countries are needed, there is nothing to suggest that these non‐vertical Phillips curves would not differ considerably across the euro countries. Any single inflation level targeted by the ECB would then generate excess unemployment in individual member states.     

Monitoring Job Offer Decisions,Punishments, Exit to Work,and Job Quality

Unemployment insurance systems include the monitoring of unemployed workers and punitive sanctions if job search requirements are violated. We analyze the causal effect of sanctions on the ensuing job quality, notably on wages and occupational level. We use Swedish data and estimate duration models dealing with selection on unobservables. We also develop a theoretical job search model that monitors job offer rejection versus job search effort. The empirical results show that, after a sanction, the wage rate is lower and individuals move more often to a part‐time job and a lower occupational level, incurring human capital losses.