This paper studies optimal monetary policy in a small open economy under flexible prices. The paper’s key innovation is to analyze this question in the context of environments where only a fraction of agents participate in asset market transactions (i.e., asset markets are segmented). In this environment, we first show that there exist state contingent rules (based either on the rate of money growth or the devaluation rate) that can implement the first-best equilibrium. Such rules, however, would require the monetary authority to respond to contemporaneous shocks and would thus be difficult to implement. We then proceed to analyze optimal monetary policy rules within the class of non-state contingent rules. Our main result is that amongst non-state contingent rules, policies targeting monetary aggregates (which allow for nominal exchange rate flexibility) welfare-dominate rules that target the exchange rate. In particular, we find that a fixed exchange rate is never optimal. Our analysis would thus tend to support monetary policy arrangements that allow for nominal exchange rate flexibility
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Fernando Alvarez & Robert E. Lucas, Jr. & Warren E. Weber, 2001.
"Interest rates and inflation,"
Working Papers
609, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Fernando Alvarez & Robert E. Lucas Jr. & Warren E. Weber, 2001.
"Interest Rates and Inflation,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 219-225, May.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Reinhart, Carmen & Calvo, Guillermo, 2002.
"Fear of floating,"
MPRA Paper
14000, University Library of Munich, Germany.
[Downloadable!]
Guillermo A. Calvo & Carmen M. Reinhart, 2000.
"Fear of Floating,"
NBER Working Papers
7993, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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