Until recently most macroeconomic models in which monetary policy has real effects were based on the assumption that agents in the economy do not use all available information when making a decision. Critics of these models argue that this assumption implies that agents are not rational. ; In...

This paper considers the joint problem of model estimation and implementation of monetary policy in the face of uncertainty regarding the process of structural change in the economy. I model unobserved structural change through time variation in the natural rates of interest and unemployment. I...

An estimation of a price index that is immune to some of the weighting biases that can hinder the use of the Consumer Price Index as a reliable measure of inflation.

Deregulation of electricity generation will offer consumers many advantages, including dramatically lower energy costs. From a macroeconomic viewpoint, electricity purchases are interesting because they are a major component of consumers’ budgets (and thus of the CPI) and a large factor of...

An examination of the impact of inflation and unemployment on poverty, using a poverty rate based on goods and services consumed, rather than on income. The findings suggest that inflation may harm the poor more than was previously thought.

At a time when past rules of thumb seem inadequate, the author briefly reviews the connection between money and prices.

A discussion of six papers presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's Conference on Price Stability in November 1990, focusing on how recent developments in macroeconomic research have changed perceptions about optimal inflation policy.