Working Paper Series : Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability
3 search hits
- 53
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Optimal monetary and fiscal policy with a zero bound on nominal interest rates
(2012)
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Sebastian Schmidt
- I characterize optimal monetary and fiscal policy in a stochastic New Keynesian model when nominal interest rates may occasionally hit the zero lower bound. The benevolent policymaker controls the short-term nominal interest rate and the level of government spending. Under discretionary policy, accounting for fiscal stabilization policy eliminates to a large extent the welfare losses associated with the presence of the zero bound. Under commitment, the gains associated with the use of the fiscal policy tool remain modest, even though fiscal stabilization policy is part of the optimal policy mix.
- 52
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The new keynesian approach to dynamic general equilibrium modeling: models, methods, and macroeconomic policy evaluation
(2012)
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Sebastian Schmidt
Volker Wieland
- This chapter aims to provide a hands-on approach to New Keynesian models and their
uses for macroeconomic policy analysis. It starts by reviewing the origins of the New Keynesian
approach, the key model ingredients and representative models. Building blocks of
current-generation dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models are discussed in
detail. These models address the famous Lucas critique by deriving behavioral equations
systematically from the optimizing and forward-looking decision-making of households and
firms subject to well-defined constraints. State-of-the-art methods for solving and estimating
such models are reviewed and presented in examples. The chapter goes beyond the mere
presentation of the most popular benchmark model by providing a framework for model
comparison along with a database that includes a wide variety of macroeconomic models.
Thus, it offers a convenient approach for comparing new models to available benchmarks
and for investigating whether particular policy recommendations are robust to model uncertainty.
Such robustness analysis is illustrated by evaluating the performance of simple
monetary policy rules across a range of recently-estimated models including some with financial
market imperfections and by reviewing recent comparative findings regarding the
magnitude of government spending multipliers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of
important objectives for on-going and future research using the New Keynesian framework.
- 49
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A new comparative approach to macroeconomic modeling and policy analysis
(2012)
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Volker Wieland
Tobias Cwik
Gernot J. Müller
Sebastian Schmidt
Maik Hendrik Wolters
- In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the state of macroeconomicmodeling and the use
of macroeconomic models in policy analysis has come under heavy criticism. Macroeconomists
in academia and policy institutions have been blamed for relying too much on a particular class
of macroeconomic models. This paper proposes a comparative approach to macroeconomic policy
analysis that is open to competing modeling paradigms. Macroeconomic model comparison
projects have helped produce some very influential insights such as the Taylor rule. However,
they have been infrequent and costly, because they require the input of many teams of researchers
and multiple meetings to obtain a limited set of comparative findings. This paper provides a new
approach that enables individual researchers to conduct model comparisons easily, frequently, at
low cost and on a large scale. Using this approach a model archive is built that includes many
well-known empirically estimated models that may be used for quantitative analysis of monetary
and fiscal stabilization policies. A computational platform is created that allows straightforward
comparisons of models’ implications. Its application is illustrated by comparing different monetary
and fiscal policies across selected models. Researchers can easily include new models in the
data base and compare the effects of novel extensions to established benchmarks thereby fostering
a comparative instead of insular approach to model development.
