This paper establishes that one can generally obtain a purely quadratic approximation to the unconditional expectation of social welfare when the steady-state is distorted. A specific example is provided employing a canonical New Keynesian model. Unlike in the non-distorted steady state case,...

What political objective should a common central bank in a heterogeneous monetary union pursue? Should it base its decisions on the EU-wide average of inflation and growth or should it instead focus on (appropriately weighted) national rates of inflation and growth? We find that a central bank...

We analyze Ramsey optimal monetary policy in a New-Keynesian model withsearch and matching frictions featuring (i) training costs due to skill loss fromlong-term unemployment and (ii) endogenous growth through learning-by-doingexternalities. In a simplified two-period version of the model, the...