The fiscal gains from, and hence the political incentives to, an increase in inflation rate of ten percentage points may be substantial: with Swedish data from 1994, these gains would have been an annual real flow of 3-4 percent of GDP, or a capitalized value of nearly 100 percent of GDP. They...

In discussions about different international monetary arrangements it is often maintained that exchange rate variability has a negative influence on international trade and foreign investment. This paper addresses one specific aspect of this general issue, namely the effect of exchange rate...

Assume that an economy is in a state of Keynesian unemployment. Since production is demand-determined there are bootstraps (multiple) equilibria. Then, the more optimist agents are about the future the higher will be theur demand today and hence current production. In that limited sense optimism...

This paper presents a new solution to the time-consistency problem that appears capable of enforcing ex ante policy in a variety of settings in which other enforcement mechanisms do not work. The solution involves formulating a law, institution, or agreement that specifies the optimal ex ante...

The current account dynamics is examined for a small open economy which is subject to exogenous changes in its static terms of trade and in world interest rates. The model used is one with overlapping finite-lived generations, which we argue gives rise to a more reasonable saving behaviour than...

This paper develops a simple general equilibrium model of a monetary economy with a capital market, in which monetary demand arises from a "cash-in-advance" constraint rather than from any direct role in the utility function. Uncertainty gives rise to a meaningful portfolio choice between money...

We examine how tax avoidance in the form of trade in well-functioning asset markets affects the basic labor supply model. We argue that models that integrate tax arbitrage and labor supply decisions may shed light on a number of positive and normative questions concerning modern systems of...

Forward guidance about future policy settings, in the form of a published policy-rate path, has for many years been a natural part of normal monetary policy for several central banks, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Swedish Riksbank. The Swedish and New Zealand experience of a...

If inflation expectations become firmly anchored at the inflation target even when average inflation deviates from the target, the long-run Phillips curve becomes non-vertical. During 1997-2011, average inflation expectations in Sweden have been close to the inflation target of 2 percent,...

This paper addresses the relation between goods trade and international factor mobility in general terms. Conditions for factor price equalization are derived for situations with tradein both goods and factors,as well as Rybczynski and Stolper-Sarnuel Sofl theorems. A weak price versionof the...