Optimal Monetary Policy

Optimal monetary policy maximizes the welfare of a representative agent, given frictions in the economic environment. Constructing a model with two sets of frictions—costly price adjustment by imperfectly competitive firms and costly exchange of wealth for goods—we find optimal monetary policy is governed by two familiar principles. First, the average level of the nominal interest rate should be sufficiently low, as suggested by Milton Friedman, that there should be deflation on average. Yet, the Keynesian frictions imply that the optimal nominal interest rate is positive. Second, as various shocks occur to the real and monetary sectors, the price level should be largely stabilized, as suggested by Irving Fisher, albeit around a deflationary trend path. Since expected inflation is roughly constant through time, the nominal interest rate must therefore vary with the Fisherian determinants of the real interest rate. Although the monetary authority has substantial leverage over real activity in our model economy, it chooses real allocations that closely resemble those which would occur if prices were flexible. In our benchmark model, there is some tendency for the monetary authority to smooth nominal and real interest rates.     

关税、货币政策与中国实际均衡汇率

加入WTO后 ,降低进口品关税等措施将影响人民币均衡汇率水平 ,同时开放经济下国内货币政策、财政政策等宏观经济政策调整也会改变均衡汇率水平。本文运用动态一般均衡的方法 ,探讨中国在加入世界贸易组织之后 ,关税税率调整、货币供应量增长率改变、财政政策调整等措施对实际均衡汇率的长期效应。把货币引入生产函数和消费者的效用函数 ,我们扩展了由Turnovsky提出的两商品资本积累模型 ,利用参数赋值(calibration)的方法进行了均衡状态下的比较静态分析。研究发现降低进口品关税使人民币面临贬值压力 ,而政府增加税收 ,减少对贸易品的消费则有利于人民币的保值和升值。实证研究结果表明 :国外实际利率水平下降 ,实际货币供应量增长率降低都将引起人民币均衡汇率贬值。     

Monetary Policy Coordination and the Level of National Debt

This paper uses the Canzoneri-Henderson benchmark framework of monetary policy coordination in interdependent economies to analyze how high levels of national debt affect monetary policy interactions. Using a two-country model, I first study how central banks interact in a flexible exchange-rate regime. I find that a low-debt country is better off interacting with a country with high debt, when both economies are affected by an aggregate inflationary shock. I also consider a political dependence scenario, in which central banks are subject to political pressure. In the case of a debt-burdened country, the political incentive to reduce interest payments on debt will spur a Gordon–Barro like inflation bias. However, under a flexible exchange-rate regime, the low-debt country will not be affected. Under a monetary union instead, political pressure may affect the low-debt country as well, and possibly create an inflation bias even greaterthan in the flexible exchange-rate regime. This scenario presents another example of how Rogoff's counterproductive monetary cooperation may arise under European Monetary Union.     

Fiscal Policy,Public Debt and the World Crisis

This study summarizes a theory of the origin of the current world economic crisis and the role of fiscal policy in mitigating its effect. The perspective is dynamic stochastic general equilibrium analysis. Overall, the model analysis suggests a strong case for fiscal policy if the monetary authority is unable/unwilling to close the output gap. This remains the case, even when explicitly taking into account public debt dynamics.     

Investment under Uncertainty, Debt and Taxes

It is common practice in financial derivative valuation to use a discount factor based on the riskless debt rate. But, to what extent is this discount factor appropriate for cash flows emerging in capital budgeting? To answer this question, we introduce a framework for real asset valuation that considers both personal and corporate taxation. We first discuss broad circumstances under which personal taxes do not affect valuation. We show that the appropriate discount rate for equity‐financed flows in a risk‐neutral setting is an equity rate that differs from the riskless debt rate by a tax wedge due to the presence of personal taxation. We extend this result to the valuation of the interest tax shield for exogenous debt policy with default risk. Interest tax shields, which accrue at a net rate corresponding to the difference between the corporate tax rate and a tax rate related to the personal tax rates, can have either positive or negative values. We also provide an illustrative real options application of our valuation approach to the case of an option to delay investment in a project, showing that the application of Black and Scholes formula may be incorrect in presence of personal taxes.     

Monetary Policy Delegation and Optimal Wage Indexation

This note shows that delegation of policy to a central banker who puts more weight on inflation stabilization than does the rest of society could reduce the alleged social inefficiency of private wage indexation decisions that arises in models of discretionary monetary policy.     

最优货币政策与经济增长

本文在新古典内生增长理论的框架内,建立一个带有资本累积的世代交叠模型进行研究发现,托宾效应总是具有可行性,弗里德曼规则反而是次优的;中央银行货币政策的重心仍然是控制货币供应量,通过货币扩张来促进真实和名义GDP增长.     

Keynes,Employment Policy and the Question of Public Debt

This article provides a simple formalization of income–expenditure equilibrium in accordance with the Principle of Effective Demand, but augmented to explicitly incorporate public debt. This is utilized to explore the conditions required for simultaneous achievement of full-employment growth and a sustainable public debt trajectory—the latter understood as stabilization of the ratio of public debt to aggregate income, at some desired level. In the spirit of Keynes's economics, demand-led, full-employment growth, driven by government spending, is reconciled with public debt sustainability so understood. The policy implications, illustrative of Keynes's policy views, are then drawn out.     

论中国财政政策的经常项目跨期均衡效应

长期持续的大规模国际收支顺差表明中国经济存在一定程度的外部非均衡.基于流动性约束建立的跨期动态均衡模型与结构向量自回归模型的实证检验结果显示,财政政策作为中国重要的宏观经济政策,对经常项目跨期均衡具有一定的调控效果,尤其是当汇率政策退出时,财政政策的跨期效应会有所增强,且此时出口退税政策还在一定程度上具有稳定经常项目跨期波动的作用,所以中国应首先优化出口退税政策.此外,利率对经常项目跨期波动的影响比较稳健,表明中国可以通过调整针对流入资本的税收政策来改变资本借贷的实际利率水平,从而有助于实现经常项目跨期均衡.     

Money, Neutrality of Consumption Taxes, and Growth in Intertemporal Optimizing Models

This paper considers the effects of a proportional consumption tax with the same rate over time on the real growth path of a monetary economy. The analysis uses a variety of stylized monetary growth models in which the individual's consumption-saving decision is based on intertemporal utility maximization (e.g. the money-in-utility, transaction-costs, and cash-in-advance models). The neutrality of consumption taxation depends on the assumed role of money in the respective models, even though the tax revenue collected is fully rebated to consumers as lump-sum transfers. The consumption tax is generally superior to inflation tax (i.e. the rate of monetary growth) in terms of steady-state welfare, as long as the labour supply is fixed.
JEL Classification Numbers: E21, E41, E62, H24     

宏观调控中的公债政策选择

发展市场经济，需要加强政府的宏观调控。公债政策作为国家宏观经济政策的组成部分，在宏观调控中发挥着特殊的功能与作用。本文从合理运用公债政策，实现国家宏观经济目标出发，在指出两种体制下公债类型政策差异的基础上，着重考察分析了我国经济转轨期公债政策与制度的市场化变革及存在的问题，最后从合理界定财政职能范围、尽快实现公债类型的市场化转型，调整公债管理政策，加强公债政策与财政、货币政策的协调配合等方面，提出转轨期合理运用公债政策的建议。     

货币冲击、房地产收益波动与最优货币政策选择

与传统资产定价模型中风险收益权衡关系相悖,我国房地产市场存在投资异象和波动长记忆性特征。文章利用泰勒规则(Taylor Rule)的利率缺口,在剔除市场预期之后测度了中国市场的货币政策冲击,并基于房地产投资回报的时序数据波动聚集性和时变性特征构建GARCH(1,1)-M模型,以此度量我国房地产市场投资收益的波动演变路径,解释了央行实施加息的货币政策后当期房价反而上涨的投资现象。文章还立足于房地产市场参与人的投资特征,从行为金融学的全新研究视角出发,建立包含行为资产定价的动态模型经济系统,研究资产价格波动与最优货币政策选择问题,求得相应闭型解,为实施关注资产价格波动的最优货币政策提供理论基础。     

Optimal Monetary Policy with Price and Wage Rigidities

In this paper, I search for an optimal configuration of parameters for variants of the Taylor rule by using an accurate second‐order welfare‐based method within a fully microfounded dynamic stochastic model, with price and wage rigidities, without capital accumulation. A version of the model with distortionary taxation is also explicitly tested. The model is solved up to second‐order solution. Optimal rules are obtained by maximizing a conditional welfare measure, differently from what has been done in the current literature. Optimal monetary policy functions turn out to be characterized by inflation targeting parameter lower than in empirical studies. In general, the optimal values for monetary policy parameters depend on the degree of nominal rigidities and on the role of fiscal policy. When nominal rigidities are higher, optimal monetary policy becomes more aggressive to inflation. With a tighter fiscal policy, optimal monetary policy turns out to be less aggressive to inflation. Impulse‐response functions based on second‐order model solution show a non‐affine pattern when the economy is hit by shocks of different magnitude .     

Optimal Export Taxes, Welfare, Industry Concentration, and Firm Size: A General Equilibrium Analysis

By using an imperfect-competition model, it is shown that an export tax, optimal in partial equilibrium, is upwardly biased and may not be optimal in a general equilibrium setting with free entry/exit. It is shown also that the export tax has an ambiguous impact on firm size. The results of an applied general equilibrium model for the Turkish economy suggest that the export tax estimated with the PE formula is larger by a small factor than the computed export tax. However, the export tax leads to an increase in firm size and, most importantly, to a social welfare loss.     

关于公众预期与货币政策的反思

公众预期与货币政策的关系问题一直是宏观经济学中令人感到;困惑的热点问题.本文力图对经典理论的基本前提进行深入的研讨,强调由于理性预期模型在前提假设方面的简单化,才使得理论与现实时常存在差异,并以此为基础进一步探析货币政策效应与公众预期的关系,最后结合中国实际进行实证分析.     

Model Uncertainty, Optimal Monetary Policy and the Preferences of the Fed

Monetary policy in the US is characterized by a substantial degree of inertia. While in principle this may well be the outcome of an optimizing central bank behaviour, the ability of any derived policy rule to match the data relies on so large weights for interest rate smoothing into policy makers' preferences as to be theoretically flawed. In this paper we investigate whether such a puzzle can be interpreted as resulting from the concern of monetary authorities for potential misspecifications of the macroeconomic dynamics. Accordingly, we propose a novel thick modelling approach that incorporates model uncertainty into the identification of central bank's preferences. The thick robust policy rule shows the kind of smoothness observed in the data without resorting to implausible values for the preference parameters.     

Optimal Monetary Policy with Vertical Production and Trade*

This paper explores the optimal monetary policy response to domestic and foreign technology shocks in an open economy with vertical structure of production and trade. We find that any stage‐specific productivity shock in one country may have a transborder spillover effect on the other country via the vertical trade. So when choosing optimal monetary rules, each monetary authority should respond to both home and foreign productivity shocks. Also, the flexible exchange rate cannot replicate the flexible price equilibrium, even under producer currency pricing, due to price stickiness in multiple stages. We also find that the existence of a transborder spillover effect depends on the currencies of price setting. Finally, vertical trade may affect the value of exchange rate flexibility under PCP and LCP setting.     

Optimal Monetary Policy and Sectoral Shocks: Is International Monetary Cooperation Beneficial?

A stochastic general‐equilibrium model is used to explore the welfare effects of optimal monetary policy and the potential benefits of policy coordination. Cross‐country perfectly symmetric shocks in the traded goods sectors and imperfectly correlated shocks in the non‐traded goods sectors are considered. In this set‐up, monetary policy may not be able to achieve efficient sectoral resource allocations within countries and avoid inefficient relative price changes across countries. Welfare gains from coordination are sizable if the shocks to the traded and non‐traded goods sectors are negatively correlated and both sectors are of roughly equal size.     

基于最优货币状况指数的政策评估：方法与应用

最优货币状况指数是以最优货币政策下所选择的各政策工具的实施力度之比作为相应权重而构建的货币状况指数。基于这个定义，本文构建了最优货币状况指数，分析了它在货币政策评估上的应用，得出几点主要结论：首先，不同于一般货币状况指数，最优货币状况指数除受原指数中相关参数的组合影响外，还受政策目标变量实际值与目标值偏离额的影响。其次，最优货币状况指数可以作为衡量货币政策实施效果的判断标准。再次，汇率和信贷政策与通货膨胀的关系及其在政策目标中的相对干预力度决定了名义或实际货币状况指数权重下货币政策的实施效果。