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Neo-Fisherian Policies and Liquidity Traps

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  • Florin O. Bilbiie

Abstract

Liquidity traps can be either fundamental or confidence-driven. In a simple, unified New Keynesian framework, I provide the analytical condition for the latter's prevalence: enough shock persistence and endogenous intertemporal amplification of future ("news") shocks, making income effects dominate substitution effects. The same condition allows neo-Fisherian effects (expansionary-inflationary interest rate increases), which are thus inherent in confidence traps. Several monetary and fiscal policies (forward guidance, interest rate increases, public spending, labor tax cuts) have diametrically opposed effects according to the trap variety. This duality provides testable implications to disentangle between trap types; that is essential, for optimal policies are also conflicting across trap varieties.

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  • Florin O. Bilbiie, 2022. "Neo-Fisherian Policies and Liquidity Traps," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 378-403, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmac:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:378-403
    DOI: 10.1257/mac.20200119
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    1. Ascari, Guido & Mavroeidis, Sophocles, 2022. "The unbearable lightness of equilibria in a low interest rate environment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 1-17.
    2. Philip Coyle & Taisuke Nakata, 2019. "Optimal Inflation Target with Expectations-Driven Liquidity Traps," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-036, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Hills, Timothy S. & Nakata, Taisuke & Schmidt, Sebastian, 2019. "Effective lower bound risk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Chunbing Cai & Jordan Roulleau-Pasdeloup, 2023. "Simple Analytics of the Government Investment Multiplier," Papers 2302.11212, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    5. Pablo Cuba-Borda & Sanjay R. Singh, 2022. "Understanding Persistent ZLB: Theory and Assessment," Working Papers 346, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    6. Roulleau-Pasdeloup, Jordan, 2023. "Analyzing Linear DSGE models: the Method of Undetermined Markov States," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Felici, Marco & Kenny, Geoff & Friz, Roberta, 2023. "Consumer savings behaviour at low and negative interest rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    8. Conrad, Christian & Enders, Zeno & Glas, Alexander, 2022. "The role of information and experience for households’ inflation expectations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    9. Gorodnichenko, Yuriy & Sergeyev, Dmitriy, 2021. "Zero Lower Bound on Inflation Expectations," IZA Discussion Papers 14853, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Philip Coyle & Taisuke Nakata, 2020. "Optimal Inflation Target with Expectations-Driven Liquidity Traps," CARF F-Series CARF-F-485, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    11. Taisuke Nakata & Sebastian Schmidt, 2022. "Expectations-Driven Liquidity Traps: Implications for Monetary and Fiscal Policy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 68-103, October.
    12. Roulleau-Pasdeloup, Jordan, 2020. "Optimal monetary policy and determinacy under active/passive regimes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Paul Beaudry & Katsiaryna Kartashova & Césaire A Meh, 2022. "Gazing at r*: A Hysteresis Perspective," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2022-08, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Dec 2022.
    14. Nicolas Caramp & Sanjay R Singh, 2023. "Bond Premium Cyclicality and Liquidity Traps," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(6), pages 2822-2879.
    15. Paul Beaudry & Katya Kartashova & Césaire Meh, 2023. "Gazing at r-star: A Hysteresis Perspective," Staff Working Papers 23-5, Bank of Canada.
    16. Airaudo, Marco & Hajdini, Ina, 2023. "Wealth effects, price markups, and the neo-Fisherian hypothesis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    17. Piergallini, Alessandro, 2022. "Average inflation targeting and macroeconomic stability," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    18. Kerstin Bernoth & Helmut Herwartz & Lasse Trienens, 2023. "The Impacts of Global Risk and US Monetary Policy on US Dollar Exchange Rates and Excess Currency Returns," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2037, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Guido Ascari & Jacopo Bonchi, 2022. "(Dis)Solving the Zero Lower Bound Equilibrium through Income Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(2-3), pages 519-535, March.
    20. Jordan Roulleau-Pasdeloup, 2022. "Analyzing Linear DSGE models: the Method of Undetermined Markov States," Papers 2209.05081, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2023.
    21. Yoichiro Tamanyu, 2020. "The Role of Nonlinearity in Indeterminate Models: An Application to Expectations-Driven Liquidity Traps," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2020-023, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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