Monetary Policy and Redistribution in Open Economies

This paper develops an open-economy heterogeneous-agent New Keynesian model in which households differ in their income, wealth, and real and financial integration with international markets. We use the model to reassess classic questions in international macroeconomics from a distributional perspective. Our analysis yields two main takeaways. First, heterogeneity in households’ international integration plays a central role in driving the unequal consumption responses to external shocks, more so than income and wealth. Second, the conduct of monetary policy in open economies faces a stabilization-inequality trade-off, with fixed exchange rate regimes leading to amplified but more equal consumption responses to external shocks.