The past 10 years or so have seen the development of a new class of models that are proving useful for monetary policy: dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. Many central banks around the world, including the Swedish central bank, the European Central Bank, the Norwegian central...

A well-designed monetary policy can help the economy respond efficiently to economic disturbances by limiting the deviation of economic activity from its potential while keeping inflation close to its desired rate. But successful implementation of such strategies must confront significant...

Until recently, when assessing the economic effects of monetary policy, economists have emphasized the role of unanticipated changes in policy. But are these policy shocks likely to be the most important influence on the economy? Mike Dotsey believes not. It seems more likely that the Fed's...

Whether policymakers should commit to a certain course of action or have the flexibility to approach each situation as it arises continues to be a central question in the design of monetary policy. A seminal article written by two prominent economists in 1977 analyzed the benefits of carrying...

In the United States, the Federal Reserve sets monetary policy by targeting the federal funds rate. This process usually involves lowering short-term interest rates when economic growth is weak and raising them when economic growth is strong. A wide class of economic models has shown that, in...

There's a common belief among economists that when there’s slack in the economy — that is, when labor and capital are not fully employed — the economy can expand without an increase in inflation. One measure of the intensity with which labor and capital are used in producing output is the...

In “A Review of Inflation Targeting in Developed Countries,” Mike Dotsey examines five countries that have been targeting inflation for at least 10 years and whose inflation rates, though fairly well contained before inflation targeting, were nonetheless considered too high by policymakers....