When the Central Bank sets nominal rates as a a non-decreasing function of the inflation rate to stabilize the economy, that is it uses a Taylor Rule, the zero lower bound on interest rates may result in multiple equilibria and a liquidity trap. However, if fiscal policy is non-Ricardian, or...

In this paper we study optimal fiscal and monetary rules in a medium-scale estimated model of the U.S. business cycle. The model features several real and nominal rigidities that have been identfied in the recent literature as salient in explaining observed aggregate fluctuations. The government...

This paper explores the macroeconomic consequences of preferences displaying asubsistence point. It departs from the existing related literature by assuming thatsubsistence points are specific to each variety of goods rather than to the compositeconsumption good. We show that this simple feature...

This paper computes welfare-maximizing monetary and fiscal policy rules in a real business cycle model augmented with sticky prices, a demand for money, taxation, and stochastic government consumption. We consider simple feedback rules whereby the nominal interest rate is set as a function of...

This paper characterizes jointly optimal default and exchange-rate policy in a small open economy with limited enforcement of debt contracts and downward nominal wage rigidity. Under optimal policy, default occurs during contractions and is accompanied by large devaluations. The latter inflate...

We study the the emergence of multiple equilibria in models with capital and bonds under various monetary and fiscal policies. We show that the presence of capital is indeed another independent source of local and global multiplicites, even under active policies that yield local determinacy. We...