We merely want to see whether, historically, fast growth of the monetary base has been associated with faster growth of real output.

In this paper we study 2-state Markov switching VAR models of monthly unemployment and inflation for three countries: Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. The primary purpose is to examine if periods of low inflation are associated with high or low unemployment volatility. To interpret...

Using UK data over the 1973q1-2004q1 period, we find that the dynamics of the real exchange rate, real wages and unemployment vary both with large versus small real exchange rate disequilibria and rising versus falling unemployment regimes. The short-run real exchange rate adjusts only when...

We examine potential nonlinear behaviour in the conduct of monetary policy by the Bank of England. We find significant nonlinearity in this policy setting, and in particular that the standard Taylor rule really only begins to bite once expected inflation is significantly above its target. This...

This paper analyzes the inflation dynamics of several countries belonging to the European Monetary Union and of the UK. We estimate the two main parameters driving the degree of persistence in inflation and its uncertainty using a dual long memory process. We also investigate the possible...

Recent theoretical and empirical work has cast doubt on the hypotheses of a linear Phillips curve and a symmetric quadratic loss function underlying traditional thinking on monetary policy. This paper studies the one-period optimal monetary policy problem under an asymmetric loss function...

This paper reconsiders the conventional use of econometric models, especially identified vector autoregressive models, in guiding monetary policy. The main question I explore is whether these models are seriously flawed because they ignore asymmetries in the business cycles. Toward that end,...

This paper derives optimal monetary policy rules in setups where certainty equivalence does not hold because either central bank preferences are not quadratic, and/or the aggregate supply relation is nonlinear. Analytical results show that these features lead to sign and size asymmetries, and...

In this paper, we argue that the observed difference in the cost of intraday and overnight liquidity is part of an optimal payments system design. In our environment, overnight liquidity affects output while intraday liquidity affects only the distribution of resources between money holders and...

In many countries, low and stable inflation is the focus of monetary policy. Recent empirical evidence from developing countries indicates, however, that the costs of reducing inflation are disproportionately borne by women. This paper seeks to determine whether a similar pattern is evident in...