Expectations and Fluctuations: The Role of Monetary Policy

This paper reconsiders the effects of expectations on economic fluctuations. It does so within a competitive monetary economy featuring producers and consumers with heterogeneous information about productivity. Agents' expectations are coordinated by a noisy public signal which generates non-fundamental, purely expectational shocks. Agents' expectations, however, have different implications for the economy. Hence, depending on how monetary policy is pursued, purely expectational shocks can behave like either demand shocks, as conventionally thought, or supply shocks - increasing output and employment yet lowering inflation. On the policy front, conventional policy recommendations are overturned: inflation stabilization is suboptimal, whereas output-gap stabilization is optimal.