Liquidity Traps, Prudential Policies, and International Spillovers

This paper studies the transmission channels of monetary and macroprudential policies in an open economy framework and evaluates the normative implications for international spillovers and global welfare. An analytical decomposition uncovers the prominent role of expenditure switching for monetary policy, while macroprudential policy operates primarily through intertemporal substitution. We show that the risk of a liquidity trap generates a monetary policy tradeoff between stabilizing current output and containing capital inflows to lower the likelihood of a future recession, but leaning against the wind is not necessarily optimal. Finally, contrary to emerging policy concerns, capital controls can enhance global stability