This paper reviews empirical findings, econometric issues,and theoretical results bearing upon the "monetary vs. fiscal policy" debate that began with the 1963 Friedrnan-Meiselman study.The main substantive conclusions are not very dramatic.The clearest is that an open-market increase in the...

This paper presents a prototype model for development of the fiscal theory of the price level.' In this simple setting, the fiscal theory's distinctiveness relies upon adoption of a bubble solution, rather than the rational-expectations fundamentals solution. The paper then shows that the fiscal...

This paper considers whether 'liquidity trap' issues have important bearing on the desirability of inflation targeting as a strategy for monetary policy. From a theoretical perspective, it has been suggested that 'expectation trap' and 'indeterminacy' dangers are created by variants of inflation...

The recently-developed fiscal theory of price level determination contends that there is an important class of policy rules in which there exists a unique rational expectations solution that shows the price level to be dependent upon fiscal policy and independent of monetary variables. The...

This paper conducts counterfactual historical analysis of several monetary policy rules by contrasting actual settings of instrument variables with values that would have been specified by the rules in response to prevailing conditions. Of particular interest is whether major policy mistakes,...

This paper explores several issues concerning a possible zero lower bound (ZLB) including its theoretical rationale; the magnitude of effects of low sustained inflation on real interest rates; the validity of analyzing monetary policy in models with no monetary variables; and the dynamic...

This paper argues that, in studying the monetary policy transmission process, more emphasis should be given to the systematic portion of policy behavior and correspondingly less to random shocks basically because shocks account for a very small fraction of policy-instrument variability. Analysis...

Both academic thinking about monetary economics and the practice of monetary policy have changed dramatically since 1971-1973, when the rational expectations revolution was beginning and the Bretton Woods system was crumbling. The present paper considers whether the various changes that have...