Financial theory creates a puzzle. Some authors argue that high-risk entrepreneurs choose debt contracts instead of equity contracts since risky but high returns are of relatively more value for a loan-financed firm. On the contrary, authors who focus explicitly on start-up finance predict that...

In this paper we study the role of the exchange rate in conducting monetary policy in an economy with near-zero nominal interest rates as experienced in Japan since the mid-1990s. Our analysis is based on an estimated model of Japan, the United States and the euro area with rational expectations...

In this paper we estimate a small model of the euro area to be used as a laboratory for evaluating the performance of alternative monetary policy strategies. We start with the relationship between output and inflation and investigate the fit of the nominal wage contracting model due to Taylor...

This paper analyzes the linkages between the credibility of a target zone regime, the volatility of the exchange rate, and the width of the band where the exchange rate is allowed to fluctuate. These three concepts should be related since the band width induces a trade-off between credibility...

Using a new consumer survey dataset, we document a new dimension of heterogeneity in inflation expectations that has implications for consumption and saving decisions as well as monetary policy transmission. We show that German households with the same inflation expectations differently assess...

The existence of and uncertainty about structural change in the economy are important features facing policymakers. This paper considers the implications for policy design of uncertainty about structural change, modelling the time variation in parameters of forward-looking models as Markov...

When people's policy forecasts are generated by exact replication of the policymaker's decision problem, present and past policy has no effect on expectations of future policy. However, when people's policy forecasts are based on the policymaker's present and past actions, for example through...

Traditionally, in the Federal Reserve's Open Market statements, the planned Federal Funds rate is set to be contained within well defined bands and not a given single value, so that the funds rate is able to vary freely within that range without interference.This paper provides an explanation of...

Social learning (SL) is a behavioral model in which expectations and the resulting aggregate dynamics stem from the interactions of a large amount of heterogeneous agents. Nonetheless, this framework has so far lacked micro-foundations and a general-solution method. This paper bridges these two...

New-Keynesian models are characterized by the presence of expectations as explanatory variables. To use these models for policy evaluation, the econometrician must estimate the parameters of expectation terms. Standard estimation methods have several drawbacks, including possible lack of...