Price Level Determinacy and Monetary Policy Under a Balanced-Budget Requirement PDF Download

Author: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This paper analyzes the implications of a balanced budget fiscal policy rule for the determinacy of the price level in a cash-in-advance economy under three alternative monetary policy regimes. It shows that in such stylized models with flexible prices and a period-by-period balanced budget requirement the price level is determinate under a money growth rate peg and is indeterminate under a pure nominal interest rate peg. Under a feedback rule whereby the nominal interest rate is set as an increasing function of the inflation rate, the price level is determinate for intermediate values of the inflation elasticity of the feedback rule and is indeterminate for both very low and very high values of the inflation elasticity. Finally, regardless of the particular monetary policy specification, a rational expectations equilibrium consistent with the optimal quantity of money may not exist.

Author: Michael Woodford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Interest rates
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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It is shown that the price level remains determinate even in the case of two kinds of radical money supply endogeneity -- an interest rate peg by the central bank, and a 'free banking' regime -- that are commonly supposed to imply loss of control of the price level. Price level determination under such regimes can be understood in terms of a 'fiscal theory of the price level, ' according to which the equilibrium price level is that level that makes the real value of nominally denominated government liabilities equal to the present value of expected future government budget surpluses. The application of the fiscal theory of the price level to exogenous-money regimes is sketched as well.

Author: Willem H. Buiter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Budget
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
It is not common for an entire scholarly literature to be based on a fallacy, that is, 'on faulty reasoning; misleading or unsound argument'. The 'fiscal theory of the price level', recently re-developed by Woodford, Cochrane, Sims and others, is an example of a fatally flawed research programme. The source of the fallacy is an economic misspecification. The proponents of the fiscal theory of the price level do not accept the fundamental proposition that the government's intertemporal budget constraint is a constraint on the government's instruments that must be satisfied for all admissible values of the economy-wide endogenous variables. Instead they require it to be satisfied only in equilibrium. This economic misspecification has implications for the mathematical or logical properties of the equilibria supported by models purporting to demonstrate the properties of the fiscal approach. These include: overdetermined (internally inconsistent) equilibria; anomalies like the apparent ability to price things that do not exist; the need for arbitrary restrictions on the exogenous and predetermined variables in the government's budget constraint; and anomalous behaviour of the equilibrium' price sequences, including behaviour that will ultimately violate physical resource constraints. The issue is of more than academic interest. Policy conclusions could be drawn from the fiscal theory of the price level that would be harmful if they influenced the actual behaviour of the fiscal and monetary authorities. The fiscal theory of the price level implies that a government could exogenously fix its real spending, revenue and seigniorage plans, and that the general price level would adjust the real value of its contractual nominal debt obligations so as to ensure government solvency. When reality dawns, the result could be painful fiscal tightening, government default, or unplanned recourse to the inflation tax.

Author: Guillermo Calvo
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349260770
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
In all countries debt and deficits of the public sector are at the heart of economic policy debate. Debt and deficits pose major problems, all the more pressing in Europe because of the Maastricht criteria for entry into European Monetary Union. And in the developing world debt has been associated with major financial crises. This volume, arising from an International Economic Association conference at the Bundesbank, sees academics and policy makers debate the key issues and their implications in theory and practice.

Author: John H. Cochrane
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691242240
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
"Inflation, in which all prices and wages in an economy rise, is mysterious. If a war breaks out in the Middle East, and the price of oil goes up, the mechanism is no great mystery-supply and demand often work pretty visibly. But if you ask the grocer why the price of bread is higher, he or she will blame the wholesaler, who will blame the baker, who will blame the wheat supplier, and so on. Perhaps the ultimate cause is a government printing more money, but there is really no way to know this for certain but to sit down in an office with statistics, armed with some decent economic theory. But current economic theory doesn't really explain why we haven't seen inflation for so long, and more and more economists think that current theory doesn't hold together, or provide much guidance for how central banks should behave if inflation does break out. Many also worry that central banks have much less power over the economy than they think they do, and much less understanding of the mechanism behind what power they do have. The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level is a comprehensive new approach to monetary policy. Economist John Cochrane argues that money has value because the government accepts it for tax payments. This insight, he argues, leads to a deep re-reading of monetary policy and institutions. Inflation comes when a government is unable to repay its debts, rather than from mismanagement of the split of debt between money and bonds. In the book, he will analyze institutional design, historical episodes, and compare fiscal theory to the Keynesian and new-Keynesian theory based on interest rate targets, and to monetarism. The book offers an overview and introduction to the range of contemporary monetary economics and history of thought as well as the fiscal theory"--

Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451844239
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
Recently, monetary authorities have increasingly focused on implementing policies to ensure price stability and strengthen central bank independence. Simultaneously, in the fiscal area, market development has allowed public debt managers to focus more on cost minimization. This “divorce” of monetary and debt management functions in no way lessens the need for effective coordination of monetary and fiscal policy if overall economic performance is to be optimized and maintained in the long term. This paper analyzes these issues based on a review of the relevant literature and of country experiences from an institutional and operational perspective.

Author: Christopher Tsoukis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192559214
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
Theory of Macroeconomic Policy reviews the theoretical foundations of macroeconomic, fiscal, and monetary, policy. It offers a panoramic view of macroeconomic theory, covering a wide range of topics that are not customarily dealt with in macroeconomics texts, as well as more standard material. Advanced theory is bridged with more elementary or intermediate material, and established models are reviewed alongside current research directions. There is an extensive review of empirical evidence on virtually every topic, supplemented by narrative accounts for various episodes. The policy implications of the various theories are emphasised throughout. The chapters are largely self-contained so that different courses can focus at different places. A 'Guidance for Further Study' Section and extensive bibliography give plenty of ideas for all levels of independent study, from Undergraduate Projects to MSc Dissertations to PhD Theses. Theory of Macroeconomic Policy presents a balance between: breadth as well as depth; analytical treatment and intuition; theory and evidence; vintage theories and current directions; theory and policy; (established) theory and debate. Theory of Macroeconomic Policy is an affirmation that there is a well-developed body of theory that is invaluable for an in-depth understanding of the macro-economy and policy; equally, there is much scope for critical discussion and debate.

Author: Ben Bernanke
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262522564
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
The goals of the annual NBER Macroeconomics Conference are to present, extend, and apply frontier work in macroeconomics and to stimulate work by macroeconomists in policy issues. Each paper in the Annual is followed by comments and discussion.

Author: Thomas J. Sargent
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674043084
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The tasks of macroeconomics are to interpret observations on economic aggregates in terms of the motivations and constraints of economic agents and to predict the consequences of alternative hypothetical ways of administering government economic policy. General equilibrium models form a convenient context for analyzing such alternative government policies. In the past ten years, the strengths of general equilibrium models and the corresponding deficiencies of Keynesian and monetarist models of the 1960s have induced macroeconomists to begin applying general equilibrium models. This book describes some general equilibrium models that are dynamic, that have been built to help interpret time-series of observations of economic aggregates and to predict the consequences of alternative government interventions. The first part of the book describes dynamic programming, search theory, and real dynamic capital pricing models. Among the applications are stochastic optimal growth models, matching models, arbitrage pricing theories, and theories of interest rates, stock prices, and options. The remaining parts of the book are devoted to issues in monetary theory; currency-in-utility-function models, cash-in-advance models, Townsend turnpike models, and overlapping generations models are all used to study a set of common issues. By putting these models to work on concrete problems in exercises offered throughout the text, Sargent provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of these models of money. An appendix on functional analysis shows the unity that underlies the mathematics used in disparate areas of rational expectations economics. This book on dynamic equilibrium macroeconomics is suitable for graduate-level courses; a companion book, Exercises in Dynamic Macroeconomic Theory, provides answers to the exercises and is also available from Harvard University Press.

Author: Ragna Alstadheim
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Interest rates
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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