IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v182y2026ics0165188925002040.html

Unemployment risk, liquidity traps, and monetary policy

Author

Listed:
  • Bonciani, Dario
  • Oh, Joonseok

Abstract

We study optimal monetary policy in a model with incomplete markets, in the form of uninsurable unemployment risk, and an occasionally binding zero lower bound (ZLB) constraint. The optimal policy consists of keeping the nominal rate at zero longer than implied by current macroeconomic conditions. Such policy improves expected labour market conditions, substantially mitigating the rise in unemployment risk and precautionary savings. As a result, we find that market incompleteness does not significantly amplify contractions in output and inflation at the ZLB. However, when the central bank follows more realistic policy rules instead of the optimal policy, incomplete markets exacerbate the fall in demand, emphasising the importance of unemployment insurance for output stabilisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Bonciani, Dario & Oh, Joonseok, 2026. "Unemployment risk, liquidity traps, and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:182:y:2026:i:c:s0165188925002040
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2025.105238
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188925002040
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jedc.2025.105238?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri & Giovanni L. Violante, 2010. "Unequal We Stand: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in the United States: 1967-2006," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(1), pages 15-51, January.
    2. George-Marios Angeletos & Chen Lian, 2018. "Forward Guidance without Common Knowledge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(9), pages 2477-2512, September.
    3. Edouard Challe & Julien Matheron & Xavier Ragot & Juan F. Rubio‐Ramirez, 2017. "Precautionary saving and aggregate demand," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(2), pages 435-478, July.
    4. George-Marios Angeletos & Zhen Huo & Karthik A. Sastry, 2021. "Imperfect Macroeconomic Expectations: Evidence and Theory," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 1-86.
    5. Campbell, Jeffrey R. & Ferroni, Filippo & Fisher, Jonas D.M. & Melosi, Leonardo, 2019. "The limits of forward guidance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 118-134.
    6. Timothy S. Hills & Taisuke Nakata, 2018. "Fiscal Multipliers at the Zero Lower Bound: The Role of Policy Inertia," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(1), pages 155-172, February.
    7. Anton Nakov, 2008. "Optimal and Simple Monetary Policy Rules with Zero Floor on the Nominal Interest Rate," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 4(2), pages 73-127, June.
    8. Ding Dong & Zheng Liu & Pengfei Wang & Min Wei, 2024. "Inflation Disagreement Weakens the Power of Monetary Policy," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-094, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Frank Smets & Rafael Wouters, 2007. "Shocks and Frictions in US Business Cycles: A Bayesian DSGE Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 586-606, June.
    10. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri, 2018. "Wealth and Volatility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(4), pages 2173-2213.
    11. Matteo Iacoviello, 2005. "House Prices, Borrowing Constraints, and Monetary Policy in the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 739-764, June.
    12. Philippe Andrade & Gaetano Gaballo & Eric Mengus & Benoît Mojon, 2019. "Forward Guidance and Heterogeneous Beliefs," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 1-29, July.
    13. Boneva, Lena Mareen & Braun, R. Anton & Waki, Yuichiro, 2016. "Some unpleasant properties of loglinearized solutions when the nominal rate is zero," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 216-232.
    14. Budianto, Flora & Nakata, Taisuke & Schmidt, Sebastian, 2023. "Average inflation targeting and the interest rate lower bound," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    15. Adam, Klaus & Billi, Roberto M., 2007. "Discretionary monetary policy and the zero lower bound on nominal interest rates," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 728-752, April.
    16. Sushant Acharya & Edouard Challe & Keshav Dogra, 2023. "Optimal Monetary Policy According to HANK," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(7), pages 1741-1782, July.
    17. Masolo, Riccardo M. & Winant, Pablo E., 2019. "The Stochastic Lower Bound," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 54-57.
    18. Guerrieri, Luca & Iacoviello, Matteo, 2015. "OccBin: A toolkit for solving dynamic models with occasionally binding constraints easily," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 22-38.
    19. Bonciani, Dario & Oh, Joonseok, 2023. "Monetary policy inertia and the paradox of flexibility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    20. Lawrence Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 2011. "When Is the Government Spending Multiplier Large?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(1), pages 78-121.
    21. Iván Werning, 2015. "Incomplete Markets and Aggregate Demand," NBER Working Papers 21448, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Bonciani, Dario & Oh, Joonseok, 2023. "Revisiting the New Keynesian policy paradoxes under QE," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    23. Sushant Acharya & Keshav Dogra, 2020. "Understanding HANK: Insights From a PRANK," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(3), pages 1113-1158, May.
    24. Leduc, Sylvain & Liu, Zheng, 2016. "Uncertainty shocks are aggregate demand shocks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 20-35.
    25. Bilbiie, F. & Primiceri, G. E. & Tambalotti, A., 2022. "Inequality and Business Cycles," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2275, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    26. Gauti B. Eggertsson, 2011. "What Fiscal Policy Is Effective at Zero Interest Rates?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2010, volume 25, pages 59-112, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Isabel Correia & Emmanuel Farhi & Juan Pablo Nicolini & Pedro Teles, 2013. "Unconventional Fiscal Policy at the Zero Bound," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(4), pages 1172-1211, June.
    28. Bonciani Dario & Oh Joonseok, 2023. "Uncertainty Shocks, Innovation, and Productivity," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 279-335, January.
    29. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March.
    30. Xavier Gabaix, 2020. "A Behavioral New Keynesian Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2271-2327, August.
    31. Alisdair McKay & Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2017. "The Discounted Euler Equation: A Note," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(336), pages 820-831, October.
    32. Alisdair McKay & Ricardo Reis, 2016. "The Role of Automatic Stabilizers in the U.S. Business Cycle," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 141-194, January.
    33. Nakata, Taisuke & Ogaki, Ryota & Schmidt, Sebastian & Yoo, Paul, 2019. "Attenuating the forward guidance puzzle: Implications for optimal monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 90-106.
    34. Oliver Pfäuti & Fabian Seyrich, 2022. "A Behavioral Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1995, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    35. R. Anton Braun & Tomoyuki Nakajima, 2012. "Uninsured Countercyclical Risk: An Aggregation Result And Application To Optimal Monetary Policy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(6), pages 1450-1474, December.
    36. Taisuke Nakata, 2017. "Uncertainty at the Zero Lower Bound," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 186-221, July.
    37. Gauti Eggertson & Vaishali Garga, 2019. "Sticky Prices versus Sticky Information: Does it Matter for Policy Paradoxes?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 363-392, January.
    38. Jung, Taehun & Teranishi, Yuki & Watanabe, Tsutomu, 2005. "Optimal Monetary Policy at the Zero-Interest-Rate Bound," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(5), pages 813-835, October.
    39. Michael Woodford, 2011. "Simple Analytics of the Government Expenditure Multiplier," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-35, January.
    40. Cui, Wei & Sterk, Vincent, 2021. "Quantitative easing with heterogeneous agents," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 68-90.
    41. Edouard Challe, 2020. "Uninsured Unemployment Risk and Optimal Monetary Policy in a Zero-Liquidity Economy," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 241-283, April.
    42. Daeha Cho, 2023. "Unemployment risk, MPC heterogeneity, and business cycles," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(2), pages 717-751, May.
    43. Andrea Gerali & Stefano Neri & Luca Sessa & Federico M. Signoretti, 2010. "Credit and Banking in a DSGE Model of the Euro Area," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(s1), pages 107-141, September.
    44. Ravn, Morten O. & Sterk, Vincent, 2017. "Job uncertainty and deep recessions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 125-141.
    45. Alisdair McKay & Emi Nakamura & Jón Steinsson, 2016. "The Power of Forward Guidance Revisited," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 3133-3158, October.
    46. Wouter J Den Haan & Pontus Rendahl & Markus Riegler, 2018. "Unemployment (Fears) and Deflationary Spirals," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(5), pages 1281-1349.
    47. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Michael Woodford, 2003. "The Zero Bound on Interest Rates and Optimal Monetary Policy," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 34(1), pages 139-235.
    48. Marco Bassetto & Wei Cui, 2024. "A Ramsey Theory of Financial Distortions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(8), pages 2612-2654.
    49. Florin O. Bilbiie, 2019. "Optimal Forward Guidance," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 310-345, October.
    50. Taisuke Nakata & Sebastian Schmidt, 2019. "Gradualism and Liquidity Traps," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 31, pages 182-199, January.
    51. Robert E. Hall, 2005. "Employment Fluctuations with Equilibrium Wage Stickiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 50-65, March.
    52. Joonseok Oh & Anna Rogantini Picco, 2025. "Macro Uncertainty, Unemployment Risk, And Consumption Dynamics," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(1), pages 287-312, February.
    53. Neri, Stefano & Notarpietro, Alessandro, 2019. "Collateral constraints, the zero lower bound, and the debt–deflation mechanism," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 144-148.
    54. Morten O Ravn & Vincent Sterk, 2021. "Macroeconomic Fluctuations with HANK & SAM: an Analytical Approach," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1162-1202.
    55. Marco Del Negro & Marc P. Giannoni & Christina Patterson, 2023. "The Forward Guidance Puzzle," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 43-79.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonciani, Dario & Oh, Joonseok, 2025. "Optimal monetary policy mix at the zero lower bound," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    2. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Sergei K. Egiev, 2025. "Liquidity Traps: A Unified Theory of the Great Depression and the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1424-1551, December.
    3. Hasui, Kohei & Sugo, Tomohiro & Teranishi, Yuki, 2026. "Liquidity trap and optimal monetary policy: Evaluations for U.S. monetary policy from 2020 to 2023," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    4. Bonciani, Dario & Oh, Joonseok, 2023. "Monetary policy inertia and the paradox of flexibility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Nakata, Taisuke & Ogaki, Ryota & Schmidt, Sebastian & Yoo, Paul, 2019. "Attenuating the forward guidance puzzle: Implications for optimal monetary policy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 90-106.
    6. Dobrew, Michael & Gerke, Rafael & Giesen, Sebastian & Röttger, Joost, 2025. "Make-up strategies with incomplete markets and bounded rationality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. He Nie & Jordan Roulleau-Pasdeloup, 2023. "The promises (and perils) of control-contingent forward guidance," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 49, pages 77-98, July.
    8. Frantisek Masek & Jan Zemlicka, 2024. "Average Inflation Targeting: How far to look into the past and the future?," Working and Discussion Papers WP 5/2024, Research Department, National Bank of Slovakia.
    9. Philippe Andrade & Gaetano Gaballo & Eric Mengus & Benoît Mojon, 2019. "Forward Guidance and Heterogeneous Beliefs," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 1-29, July.
    10. Jordi Galí, 2018. "The State of New Keynesian Economics: A Partial Assessment," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 87-112, Summer.
    11. Bilbiie, Florin, 2017. "The Puzzle, the Power, and the Dark Side: Forward Guidance Redux," CEPR Discussion Papers 12231, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Oliver Pfäuti & Fabian Seyrich, 2022. "A Behavioral Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian Model," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1995, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Ding Dong & Zheng Liu & Pengfei Wang & Min Wei, 2024. "Inflation Disagreement Weakens the Power of Monetary Policy," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2024-094, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    14. Alisdair McKay & Ricardo Reis, 2021. "Optimal Automatic Stabilizers," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2375-2406.
    15. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin S. Eichenbaum & Mathias Trabandt, 2018. "On DSGE Models," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 113-140, Summer.
    16. Daisuke Ida & Hirokuni Iiboshi, 2021. "The international forward guidance transmission under a global liquidity trap," Papers 2103.12503, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    17. Hasui, Kohei & Teranishi, Yuki, 2025. "Optimal monetary policy in a liquidity trap: Evaluations for Japan’s monetary policy," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    18. Florin O Bilbiie, 2025. "Monetary Policy and Heterogeneity: An Analytical Framework," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(4), pages 2398-2436.
    19. Bilbiie, Florin O., 2020. "The New Keynesian cross," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 90-108.
    20. Campbell, Jeffrey R. & Ferroni, Filippo & Fisher, Jonas D.M. & Melosi, Leonardo, 2019. "The limits of forward guidance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 118-134.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:182:y:2026:i:c:s0165188925002040. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.