This paper establishes that one can generally obtain a purely quadratic approximation to the unconditional expectation of social welfare when the steady-state is distorted. A specific example is provided employing a canonical New Keynesian model. Unlike in the non-distorted steady state case,...

We develop a simple and intuitive approach for analytically deriving unconditionally optimal (UO) policies, a topic of enduring interest in optimal monetary policy analysis. The approach can be employed to both general linear-quadratic problems and to the underlying non-linear environments. We...

We consider how fear of model misspecification on the part of the planner and/or the households affects welfare gains from optimal macroprudential taxes in an economy with occasionally binding collateral constraints as in Bianchi (2011). On the one hand, there exist welfare gains from...

We show that welfare can be lower under complete financial markets than under autarky in a monetary union with home bias, sticky prices and asymmetric shocks. Such a monetary union is a second-best environment in which the structure of financial markets affects risk-sharing but also shapes the...

Is there a link between capital controls and monetary policy autonomy in a country with a floating currency? Shocks to capital flows into a small open economy lead to volatility in asset prices and credit supply. To lessen the impact of capital flows on financial instability, a central bank...

This paper sets out to assess whether gross capital inflows to the Philippines are expansionary or contractionary in line with the model predictions and empirical findings of Blanchard et al. (2015). The results indicate that gross inflows are expansionary to output and credit growth. But...

I provide evidence that portfolio equity inflows can have expansionary effects on GDP and inflation if not offset by monetary policy. I use a shift-share instrument to estimate equity inflows based on plausibly exogenous timing of inflows into mutual funds with heterogeneous country portfolios....

Evidence from monetary VARs suggests that in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. 7 the impact of monetary shocks on real house prices is about three to five times as large 8 as that on real GDP. Although these trade-offs are not manifestly unfavorable, in the 9 light of the large differences in the...

A two sector small open economy model developed by Corden (1991, 2002) is used to analyse the impact of sudden stops in capital inflows on an internal and external equilibrium and to explore the merits of disposing of the nominal exchange rate as policy tool in rectifying real exchange rate...

Increasing capital inflows and sustained interest rate spreads were important features in East Asia prior to the crisis of 1997-98. But why did capital inflows fail to eliminate interest rate differentials? Why were inflows associated with rising domestic interest rates that then perpetuated the...