An examination of monetary policy actions before and after 1982, illustrating that prompt federal funds rate increases aimed at maintaining a low inflation environment are associated with subsequent robust economic growth, not with weak growth, as is commonly thought.

An argument that the Federal Reserve, by targeting a long-run path for the price level, could achieve its price-stability objective without inhibiting its short-term goals.

In 1998, University of Iowa faculty members created their own futures markets. These experimental markets, designed to provide insights into the behavior of traders and naturally occurring markets, are still going strong. Their clever design gives them another practical use: They can be used to...

Since early 1994, the FOMC has taken many steps toward increasing the amount of information it conveys to the public about its actions. Sandra Pianalto, a Federal Reserve Bank president and FOMC participant, outlines the evolution of increasing transparency in FOMC communications and suggests a...

The testimony of Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President W. Lee Hoskins before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, supporting House Joint Resolution 409, which would establish achievement of price stability as the primary policy goal of the central bank.

The housing market is of central concern to monetary policy makers. To achieve the dual goals of price stability and maximum sustainable employment, monetary policy makers must understand the role that housing plays in the monetary transmission mechanism if they are to set policy instruments...

The data across time and countries suggest the level and variance of inflation are highly correlated. This paper examines the effect of trend inflation on the ability of the monetary authority to ensure a determinate equilibrium and macroeconomic stability in a sticky-price model. Trend...

Many researchers have found that the lagged interest rate enters estimated monetary policy rules with overwhelming significance. However, a recent paper by Rudebusch (2002) argues that the lagged interest rate is not a fundamental component of the U.S. policy rule, and that its significance...

We use simulations of the Federal Reserve's FRB/US model to examine the efficacy of a number of proposals for reducing the consequences of the zero bound on nominal interest rates. Among the proposals are: a more aggressive monetary policy; promises to make up any shortfall in monetary ease...

This paper employs stochastic simulations of a small structural rational expectations model to investigate the consequences of the zero bound constraint on nominal interest rates. We find that if the economy is subject to stochastic shocks similar in magnitude to those experienced in the U.S....