In a plain-vanilla New Keynesian model with two-period staggered price-setting, discretionary monetary policy leads to multiple equilibria. Complementarity between the pricing decisions of forward-looking firms underlies the multiplicity, which is intrinsically dynamic in nature. At each point in time, the discretionary monetary authority optimally accommodates the level of predetermined prices when setting the money supply because it is concerned solely about real activity. Hence, if other firms set a high price in the current period, an individual firm will optimally choose a high price because it knows that the monetary authority next period will accommodate with a high money supply. Under commitment, the mechanism generating complementarity is absent: the monetary authority commits not to respond to future predetermined prices. Multiple equilibria also arise in other similar contexts where (i) a policymaker cannot commit, and (ii) forward-looking agents determine a state variable to which future policy responds.
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Stefania Albanesi & V.V. Chari & Lawrence J. Christiano, .
"Expectation Traps and Monetary Policy,"
Working Papers
198, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
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Aubhik Khan & Robert King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2002.
"Optimal monetary policy,"
Working Papers
02-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
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Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2000.
"Optimal monetary policy,"
Working Paper
00-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
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Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2001.
"Optimal monetary policy,"
Working Papers
01-5, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
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Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2002.
"Optimal Monetary Policy,"
NBER Working Papers
9402, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2003.
"Optimal Monetary Policy,"
Review of Economic Studies,
Blackwell Publishing, vol. 70(4), pages 825-860, October.
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