How does the need to preserve government debt sustainability affect the optimal monetary and fiscal policy response to a liquidity trap? To provide an answer, we employ a small stochastic New Keynesian model with a zero bound on nominal interest rates and characterize optimal time-consistent...

Analyses of a large retail scanner price data set reveal a new and surprising regularity - small price increases occur more frequently than small price decreases for price changes of up to 10 cents. That is, we find asymmetric price adjustment quot;in the small.quot; Furthermore, it turns out...

This paper provides cross-sectional evidence of convenient prices -- prices that simplify and expedite transactions and thereby reduce the time costs from physically making a transaction. I propose that firms may wish to set convenient prices for items that: (1) are typically purchased with...

The form of bounded rationality characterizing the representative agent is key in the choice of the optimal monetary policy regime. While inflation targeting prevails for myopia that distorts agents' inflation expectations, price level targeting emerges as the optimal policy under myopia...

Intertemporal consumer preference shifts, although common in modern macro-economic models as drivers of demand shocks, have important but largely unexplored implications for price index theory and thus, for empirically measured price changes. The current practice of inflation measurement...

The credit crisis has revealed economic inequalities across the world, yet it has emphasized transitions in the way middle class and working class people have handled wealth and consumption. This has mostly been focused in the press on changes in home ownership but has had dramatic effects in...

This paper intends to illustrate theoretical bases for positive factors as well as major problems associated with UCT and CCT programs. It is important to highlight that there is diverse empirical evidence regarding support schemes and their effects on schooling, health and nutrition. However,...

Consumers' inflation expectations play a key role in the monetary transmission mechanism. As such, it is crucial for monetary policymakers to understand what they are and how they are formed. In this paper we introduce the (un)certainty channel as means to shed light on some of the more puzzling...

The effect on the household consumption price index from possible sources of error in capturing digital products depends on the weight of the affected products. To calculate upper bounds for this effect, we apply weights based on the average structure of household consumption in OECD countries...

Seasonal adjustment usually relies on statistical models of seasonality that treat seasonal fluctuations as noise corrupting the 'true' data. But seasonality in economic series often stems from economic behavior such as Christmas-time spending. Such economic seasonality invalidates the...