When discretion is better: Initial conditions and the timeless perspective

According to Woodford (1999) and (2003) [Woodford, Michael, 1999. Commentary: how should monetary policy be conducted in an era of price stability? In: New challenges for monetary policy. Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pp. 277-316; Woodford, Michael, 2003. Interest and prices: foundations of a theory of monetary policy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ], optimal monetary policy in the New Keynesian model follows the timeless perspective rule. We show why an economy that is sufficiently far away from its steady-state suffers from a short-run cost associated with the timeless perspective. In this case, discretionary policy-making can be better than the timeless perspective policy rule.