Search Results
Working Paper
Interest rate rules vs. money growth rules: a welfare comparison in a cash-in-advance economy
A consideration of the welfare consequences of two simple monetary policy rules--an interest rate peg and a money growth peg--in a dynamic general-equilibrium model, indicating that the interest rate rule dominates the money growth rule.
Journal Article
Securitization: more than just a regulatory artifact
An exploration of the recent boom in asset-backed lending, or securitization, by both financial institutions and nonbank firms, which the authors contend is more the result of improvements in information technology than a response to the regulatory costs of traditional bank funding.
Working Paper
Bracket creep in the age of indexing: have we solved the problem?
An examination of the inflation-indexing provisions contained in the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986.
Working Paper
Taylor rules in a model that satisfies the natural rate hypothesis
The authors analyze the restrictions necessary to ensure that the interest-rate policy rule used by the central bank does not introduce real indeterminacy into the economy. They conduct this analysis in a flexible price economy and a sticky price model that satisfies the natural rate hypothesis. A necessary and sufficient condition for real determinacy in the sticky price model is that there must be nominal and real determinacy in the corresponding flexible price model. This arises if and only if the Taylor rule responds aggressively to lagged inflation rates.
Journal Article
Expected inflation and TIPS
When inflation-indexed Treasury securities were first introduced, economists hoped that they could be used to measure expected inflation easily. The only difference between securities that were indexed to inflation and those that were not was thought to be the extra compensation regular securities had to pay for what the market thought inflation would be. By now it is pretty clear that inflation-indexed Treasuries differ from regular securities in other ways that show up in the yields. This Commentary suggests what these are and discusses a method of correcting for them.
Journal Article
Monetary policy rules and stability: inflation targeting versus price-level targeting
Monetary policy rules help central banks exercise the discipline necessary to achieve their long-term goals. The type of rule many banks are turning to these days is inflation targeting, which has several advantages. But because banks base their actions on forecasts of future inflation, following the rule can lead to inflation-rate instability in some cases. A price-level target offers the same benefits as an inflation target but, because actions are based on past inflation, it avoids this vulnerability.
Working Paper
Marginal tax rates and income inequality: a quantitative-theoretic analysis
An Auerbach-Kotlikoff (AK) overlapping-generations model is used to examine how changes in marginal income-tax rate structures affect the distribution of income, drawing on actual changes to the U.S. tax code. This approach builds on AK by allowing for many different cohort types, and hence for a nontrivial endogenous distribution of income.
Working Paper
A two-sector implicit contracting model with procyclical quits and involuntary layoffs
An explanation of involuntary unemployment and procyclical quits based on models of implicit contracts and on-the-job search.
Working Paper
Privately optimal contracts and suboptimal outcomes in a model of agency costs
This paper derives the privately optimal lending contract in the celebrated financial accelerator model of Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist (1999). The privately optimal contract includes indexation to the aggregate return on capital, household consumption, and the return to internal funds. Although privately optimal, this contract is not welfare maximizing as it leads to a sub-optimally high price of capital. The welfare cost of the privately optimal contract (when compared to the planner outcome) is significant. A menu of time-varying taxes and subsidies can decentralize the planner?s ...
Journal Article
Bank runs, deposit insurance, and bank regulation, part I
An analysis of the costs and benefits of providing federal deposit insurance as a means of preventing widespread bank failures, and the role of bank regulators in assuring bank solvency; article concludes with February 15 issue.