The U.S. economy appears to have experienced a pronounced shift toward higher productivity over the last five years or so. We wish to understand the implications of such shifts for the structure of optimal monetary policy rules in simple dynamic economies. Accordingly, we begin with a standard...

James B. Bullard and Eric Schaling study a simple, small dynamic economy which a policymaker is attempting to control with a Taylor-type monetary policy rule. The authors wish to understand the macroeconomic consequences of the policymaker’s decision to include the level of equity prices in...