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The Role of Contracting Schemes for Assessing the Welfare Costs of Nominal Rigidities

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  • von Hagen, Jurgen
  • Paustian, Matthias

Abstract

Due to the lack of pertinent evidence, there is currently no agreement on how to introduce nominal rigidities into monetary macroeconomic models. We examine the role of alternative assumptions about the wage and price setting mechanisms for the assessment of the welfare costs of nominal rigidities and the performance of alternative monetary policy rules in an otherwise standard New Keynesian general equilibrium model. We find that the choice of a particular price and wage setting scheme matters quantitatively for the welfare costs of nominal rigidities. However, qualitative statements such as the welfare ranking of alternative monetary policy rules are robust to changes in contracting schemes. The difference between sticky nominal contracts and sticky information matters more than the difference in the age distribution of prices wages and information implied by alternative price and wage setting schemes.

Suggested Citation

  • von Hagen, Jurgen & Paustian, Matthias, 2008. "The Role of Contracting Schemes for Assessing the Welfare Costs of Nominal Rigidities," CEPR Discussion Papers 6726, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6726
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    Cited by:

    1. Dixon, Huw David, 2009. "A unified framework for understanding and comparing dynamic wage and price setting models," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2009/20, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    2. Huw David Dixon & Kun Tian, 2017. "What We can Learn About the Behaviour of Firms from the Average Monthly Frequency of Price-Changes: An Application to the UK CPI Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(6), pages 907-932, December.
    3. Dixon Huw, 2012. "A Unified Framework for Using Micro-Data to Compare Dynamic Time-Dependent Price-Setting Models," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-45, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Calvo pricing; Monetary policy rules; Nominal rigidities; Sticky information; Taylor contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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