IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedhwp/99676.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Evolving Core of Usable Macroeconomics for Policymakers

Author

Listed:

Abstract

We provide a brief primer on how the core of usable macroeconomic theory for monetary policymakers has evolved over the past 50 years. Today’s policy discussions center on the New Keynesian (NK) synthesis, which builds on the Neoclassical growth model and the AS-AD framework. It incorporates nominal and real rigidities, financial and labor market frictions, the importance of expectations, and inspired terms used by policymakers such as “anchored inflation expectations” and “forward guidance.” While essential for communication during the Great Recession and Covid-19 pandemic, these events also revealed the NK model’s limitations. Newer models incorporating heterogeneous agents potentially offer richer policy insights but add complexity and the challenge of distilling their main policy implications going forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas D. M. Fisher & Bart Hobijn & Alessandro Villa, 2025. "The Evolving Core of Usable Macroeconomics for Policymakers," Working Paper Series WP 2025-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:99676
    DOI: 10.21033/wp-2025-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.21033/wp-2025-02
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.21033/wp-2025-02?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Charles L. Evans, 2005. "Nominal Rigidities and the Dynamic Effects of a Shock to Monetary Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 1-45, February.
    2. Erceg, Christopher J. & Henderson, Dale W. & Levin, Andrew T., 2000. "Optimal monetary policy with staggered wage and price contracts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 281-313, October.
    3. Calvo, Guillermo A., 1983. "Staggered prices in a utility-maximizing framework," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 383-398, September.
    4. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-1370, November.
    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. Del Negro, Marco & Schorfheide, Frank, 2008. "Forming priors for DSGE models (and how it affects the assessment of nominal rigidities)," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1191-1208, October.
    2. Jorge Fornero & Markus Kirchner & Andrés Yany, 2015. "Terms of Trade Shocks and Investment in Commodity-Exporting Economies," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Rodrigo Caputo & Roberto Chang (ed.),Commodity Prices and Macroeconomic Policy, edition 1, volume 22, chapter 5, pages 135-193, Central Bank of Chile.
    3. Lindé, Jesper & Smets, Frank & Wouters, Rafael, 2016. "Challenges for Central Banks´ Macro Models," Working Paper Series 323, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    4. Bazhenova Olena & Bazhenova Yuliya, 2016. "Modelling the Impact of External Shocks on Economy of Ukraine: Dsge Approach," Ekonomika (Economics), Sciendo, vol. 95(1), pages 64-83, January.
    5. Andrei Polbin & Sergey Drobyshevsky, 2014. "Developing a Dynamic Stochastic Model of General Equilibrium for the Russian Economy," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 166P, pages 156-156.
    6. Marco Del Negro & Frank Schorfheide, 2009. "Monetary Policy Analysis with Potentially Misspecified Models," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1415-1450, September.
    7. Jorge Fornero & Markus Kirchner, 2018. "Learning about Commodity Cycles and Saving-Investment Dynamics in a Commodity-Exporting Economy," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 14(2), pages 205-262, March.
    8. Guido Ascari & Louis Phaneuf & Eric Sims, 2020. "Can New Keynesian Models Survive the Barro-King Curse?," Working Papers 20-05, Chair in macroeconomics and forecasting, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    9. Barseghyan Gayane, 2013. "An Estimated Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Model for Armenian Economy," EERC Working Paper Series 13/11e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    10. Sala, Luca & Söderström, Ulf & Trigari, Antonella, 2010. "The Output Gap, the Labor Wedge, and the Dynamic Behavior of Hours," Working Paper Series 246, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).
    11. Justiniano, Alejandro & Primiceri, Giorgio E. & Tambalotti, Andrea, 2010. "Investment shocks and business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 132-145, March.
    12. Latsos Sophia, 2018. "Real Wage Effects of Japan’s Monetary Policy," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 69(1), pages 177-215, July.
    13. Lindé, J. & Smets, F. & Wouters, R., 2016. "Challenges for Central Banks’ Macro Models," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2185-2262, Elsevier.
    14. Shirota, Toyoichiro, 2018. "What is the major source of business cycles: Spillovers from land prices, investment shocks, or anything else?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 138-149.
    15. Jean-Pierre Danthine & Andre Kurmann, 2004. "Fair Wages in a New Keynesian Model of the Business Cycle," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 7(1), pages 107-142, January.
    16. Adolfson, Malin & Laséen, Stefan & Lindé, Jesper & Svensson, Lars E.O., 2014. "Monetary policy trade-offs in an estimated open-economy DSGE model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 33-49.
    17. Jaromir Benes & Tibor Hledik & Michael Kumhof & David Vavra, 2005. "An Economy in Transition and DSGE: What the Czech National Bank's New Projection Model Needs," Working Papers 2005/12, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department.
    18. Luca Sala, 2015. "Dsge Models in the Frequency Domains," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 219-240, March.
    19. Li, Erica X.N. & Palomino, Francisco, 2014. "Nominal rigidities, asset returns, and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 210-225.
    20. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and macroeconomics," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 373-383.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic history; Monetary policy;

    JEL classification:

    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fip:fedhwp:99676. 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: Lauren Wiese (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbchus.html .

    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.