Recently, Svensson (1997) has shown that a combination of state-contingent inflation targeting and central banker conservatism produces optimal monetary policy if employment is persistent. We argue that the state-contingent nature of the scheme may undermine its credibility. We then show that...

We present new evidence on the uncertain nature of nonstationarity – that is, trend stationarity vs. difference stationarity – of aggregate per capita real output, by submitting to a composite testing procedure a 20-country sample over an historically relevant time span. We find that the...

The new neoclassical synthesis combines ideas of Keynesian and classical economics. It involves the application of intertemporal optimization and rational expectations. These are applied to the analysis of pricing and output decisions in a Keynesian context as well to the consumption, investment...

The new neoclassical synthesis combines ideas of Keynesian and classical economics.It involves the application of intertemporal optimization and rational expectations.These are applied to the analysis of pricing and output decisions in a Keynesian context as well to the consumption, investment...

Chari, Kehoe, and McGratten's (1998) finding that a standard monetary business cycle model with staggered price setting is unable to generate sufficiently persistent real effects of monetary shocks has engendered a growing literature aimed at developing alternative mechanisms for producing...

This paper shows that the government can achieve its precommitment outcome in monetary policy when output follows an autoregressive process, by offering the central banker a linear inflation contract, and where the parameters of the contract depend on lagged output. This note therefore offers an...