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Optimal Nonlinear Policy: Signal Extraction with a Non-Normal Prior

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Eric Swanson

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Abstract

The literature on optimal monetary policy typically makes three major assumptions: 1) policymakers’ preferences are quadratic, 2) the economy is linear, and 3) stochastic shocks and policymakers’ prior beliefs about unobserved variables are normally distributed. This paper relaxes the third assumption and explores its implications for optimal policy. The separation principle continues to hold in this framework, allowing for tractability and application to forward-looking models, but policymakers’ beliefs are no longer updated in a linear fashion, allowing for plausible nonlinearities in optimal policy. We consider in particular a class of models in which policymakers’ priors about the natural rate of unemployment are diffuse in a region around the mean. When this is the case, it is optimal for policy to respond cautiously to small surprises in the observed unemployment rate, but become increasingly aggressive at the margin. These features of optimal policy match statements by Federal Reserve officials and the behavior of the Fed in the 1990s

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Paper provided by Society for Computational Economics in its series Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 with number 147.

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Date of creation: 11 Nov 2005
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Handle: RePEc:sce:scecf5:147

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Related research
Keywords: nonlinear policy optimal filtering signal extraction learning non-normal priors

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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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.:
  1. Swanson, Eric T., 2004. "Signal Extraction And Non-Certainty-Equivalence In Optimal Monetary Policy Rules," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(01), pages 27-50, January. [Downloadable!]
  2. Andrew J. Filardo, 1998. "New evidence on the output cost of fighting inflation," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Q III. [Downloadable!]
  3. Orphanides, Athanasios & Wieland, Volker, 2000. "Inflation zone targeting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 1351-1387, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Wieland, Volker, 2003. "Monetary Policy and Uncertainty about the Natural Unemployment Rate," CEPR Discussion Papers 3811, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Pearlman, Joseph & Currie, David & Levine, Paul, 1986. "Rational expectations models with partial information," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 90-105, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. repec:cup:macdyn:v:8:y:2004:i:1:p:27-50 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Pearlman, Joseph G., 1992. "Reputational and nonreputational policies under partial information," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 339-357, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Svensson, Lars E. O. & Woodford, Michael, 2003. "Indicator variables for optimal policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 691-720, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Eric Swanson, 2005. "Optimal Nonlinear Policy: Signal Extraction with a Non-Normal Prior," Computing in Economics and Finance 2005 147, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Laurence H. Meyer & Eric T. Swanson & Volker W. Wieland, 2001. "NAIRU Uncertainty and Nonlinear Policy Rules," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 226-231, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Sack, Brian & Wieland, Volker, 2000. "Interest-rate smoothing and optimal monetary policy: a review of recent empirical evidence," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(1-2), pages 205-228. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, 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.)

  1. Laurence H. Meyer & Eric T. Swanson & Volker W. Wieland, 2001. "NAIRU uncertainty and nonlinear policy rules," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2001-01, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Eric T. Swanson, 2005. "Optimal nonlinear policy: signal extraction with a non-normal prior," Working Paper Series 2005-24, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
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  3. G. C. Lim & Paul D. McNelis, 2006. "Inflation Targeting, Learning and Q Volatility in Small Open Economies," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2006n22, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
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