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How relevant are nominal contracting schemes for monetary policy?

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  • Paustian, Matthias
  • von Hagen, Jürgen

Abstract

Due to the scarcity of pertinent evidence, there is currently no general 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, the ranking of the welfare costs associated with alternative wage and price setting schemes is robust to changes in the monetary policy rule, and the ranking of the welfare costs associated with alternative monetary policy rules is robust to changes in the wage and price setting scheme. 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

  • Paustian, Matthias & von Hagen, Jürgen, 2012. "How relevant are nominal contracting schemes for monetary policy?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 723-740.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:34:y:2012:i:3:p:723-740
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2012.03.006
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nominal rigidities; Monetary policy rules; Welfare costs of nominal rigidities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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