The natural interest rate is the real rate that would prevail in the long-run. The standard view in macroeconomics is that the natural rate depends exclusively on structural factors such as productivity growth and demographics. This paper challenges this view by discussing three alternative, and...

This paper studies monetary policy in a New Keynesian model with persistent supply shocks, that is, sustained increases in production costs due to factors such as wars or geopolitical fragmentation. First, we demonstrate that Taylor rules fail to stabilize long-term inflation due to endogenous...

In this paper we derive optimal monetary targeting rules under various assumptions about fiscal behavior. In contrast to the existing literature we use a linear-quadratic approach and allow for dynamic games between the two policy authorities. It is shown that optimal monetary behavior is...

At the end of 2014, the Bolivian economy, despite facing negative external shocks (falling oil prices), registered a high economic growth in the region of Latin America. Monetary policy was aimed at keeping the government bond rate close to zero and raising liquidity levels in the economy...

Zimbabwe has recently experienced record hyperinflation of 80 billion percent a month. This paper uses new data from Zimbabwe to investigate money demand under hyperinflation using an ARDL estimation for the period 1980-2008. The results produce plausible convergence rates and long- run...

We study whether the adoption of the Euro and a single monetary policy have brought about a change in the monetary transmission mechanism and between the interactions of monetary policy, fiscal policy and financial stress in the Euro area. We find that the stylized facts of monetary transmission...

It is widely argued that Europe's unified monetary policy calls for the international coordination at the fiscal level. We survey the issues involved with such coordination of fiscal policy as a demand management tool and we use a simple model to investigate the circumstances under which...

Policy mix problems may arise in a monetary union with centralized monetary policy and decentralized fiscal policy. A consequence of this may be an inappropriate stabilization of shocks. This paper addresses how policy coordination problems are affected by the objectives of the monetary...

Our current inflation stemmed from a fiscal shock. The Fed is slow to react. Why? Will the Fed's slow reaction spur more inflation? I write a simple model that encompasses the Fed's mild projections and its slow reaction, and traditional views that inflation will surge without swift rate rises....

This paper studies the institutional design of the coordination of macroeconomic stabilization policies within a monetary union in the framework of linear quadratic differential games. A central role in the analysis plays the partitioned game approach of the endogenous coalition formation...