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Expectations and Monetary Policy: Experimental Evidence

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Abstract

The effectiveness of monetary policy depends, to a large extent, on market expectations of its future actions. In a standard New Keynesian business cycle model with rational expectations, systematic monetary policy reduces the variance of inflation and output gap by at least two-thirds. These stabilization benefits can be substantially smaller if expectations are non-rational. We design an economic experiment that identifies the contribution of expectations to macroeconomic stabilization achieved by systematic monetary policy. We find that, despite some non-rational component in expectations formed by experiment participants, monetary policy is quite potent in providing stabilization, reducing roughly a half of macroeconomic variance.te potent in providing stabilization, reducing roughly a half of macroeconomic variance.

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  • Oleksiy Kryvtsov & Luba Petersen, 2013. "Expectations and Monetary Policy: Experimental Evidence," Discussion Papers dp13-09, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
    • Handle: RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp13-09
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Expectations; Monetary Policy; Inflation; Laboratory Experiment; Experimental Macroeconomics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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