IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/moneco/v59y2012i2p180-195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monetary policy and labor market frictions: A tax interpretation

Author

Listed:
  • Ravenna, Federico
  • Walsh, Carl E.

Abstract

Replicating the flexible price allocation in models with nominal rigidities and labor market frictions that lead to an inefficient matching of unemployed workers with job vacancies, even if feasible, is generally not desirable. We characterize the tax instruments that implement the first best allocation and examine the trade-offs faced by monetary policy if these tax instruments are unavailable. Our tax interpretation helps explain why the welfare cost of inefficient labor market search can be large while the incentive to deviate from price stability is small. Gains from deviating from price stability are larger in economies with more volatile labor flows.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravenna, Federico & Walsh, Carl E., 2012. "Monetary policy and labor market frictions: A tax interpretation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 180-195.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:moneco:v:59:y:2012:i:2:p:180-195
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2012.01.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304393212000190
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2012.01.003?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mortensen, Dale & Pissarides, Christopher, 2011. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 1, pages 1-19.
    2. Ravenna, Federico & Walsh, Carl E., 2008. "Vacancies, unemployment, and the Phillips curve," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1494-1521, November.
    3. Aubhik Khan & Robert G. King & Alexander L. Wolman, 2003. "Optimal Monetary Policy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(4), pages 825-860.
    4. Olivier Blanchard & Jordi Galí, 2010. "Labor Markets and Monetary Policy: A New Keynesian Model with Unemployment," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 1-30, April.
    5. Thomas, Carlos, 2008. "Search and matching frictions and optimal monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 936-956, July.
    6. Altug,Sumru & Chadha,Jagjit S. & Nolan,Charles (ed.), 2003. "Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521826686.
    7. Bernardino Adão & Isabel Correia & Pedro Teles, 2003. "Gaps and Triangles," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(4), pages 699-713.
    8. Faia, Ester, 2008. "Optimal monetary policy rules with labor market frictions," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1600-1621, May.
    9. Faia, Ester, 2009. "Ramsey monetary policy with labor market frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 570-581, May.
    10. Carl E. Walsh, 2005. "Labor Market Search, Sticky Prices, and Interest Rate Policies," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 8(4), pages 829-849, October.
    11. Olivier Blanchard & Jordi Galí, 2007. "Real Wage Rigidities and the New Keynesian Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(s1), pages 35-65, February.
    12. Altug,Sumru & Chadha,Jagjit S. & Nolan,Charles (ed.), 2003. "Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521534031.
    13. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 2007. "Business Cycle Accounting," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(3), pages 781-836, May.
    14. Robert Shimer, 2005. "The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 25-49, March.
    15. Mark Gertler & Antonella Trigari, 2009. "Unemployment Fluctuations with Staggered Nash Wage Bargaining," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(1), pages 38-86, February.
    16. Marvin Goodfriend & Robert G. King, 2001. "The Case for Price Stability," NBER Working Papers 8423, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    18. Taylor, John B., 1993. "Discretion versus policy rules in practice," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 195-214, December.
    19. Robert Shimer, 2004. "The Consequences of Rigid Wages in Search Models," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 469-479, 04/05.
    20. Robert E. Hall, 2005. "Employment Fluctuations with Equilibrium Wage Stickiness," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 50-65, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lien Laureys, 2014. "Optimal Monetary Policy in the Presence of Human Capital Depreciation during Unemployment," Discussion Papers 1415, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).
    2. Davide Debortoli & Jinill Kim & Jesper Lindé & Ricardo Nunes, 2019. "Designing a Simple Loss Function for Central Banks: Does a Dual Mandate Make Sense?," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(621), pages 2010-2038.
    3. Antoine Lepetit, 2020. "Asymmetric Unemployment Fluctuations and Monetary Policy Trade-Offs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 29-45, April.
    4. repec:fip:fedkrw:15-05 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Pedro, Gomis-Porqueras, 2016. "Fiscal Requirements for Price Stability in Economies with Private Provision of Liquidity and Unemployment," MPRA Paper 75113, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Chugh, Sanjay K., 2013. "Costly external finance and labor market dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 2882-2912.
    7. Wei, Xiaoyun & Han, Liyan, 2020. "Targeted reduction in reserve requirement ratio and optimal monetary policy in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 209-230.
    8. Troy Davig & Refet S. Gürkaynak, 2015. "Is Optimal Monetary Policy Always Optimal?," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 11(4), pages 353-382, September.
    9. Sergio A. Lago Alves, 2018. "Monetary Policy, Trend Inflation, and Unemployment Volatility," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 637-673, June.
    10. Bodenstein, Martin & Kamber, Güneş & Thoenissen, Christoph, 2018. "Commodity prices and labour market dynamics in small open economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 170-184.
    11. Walsh, Carl E, 2014. "Multiple Objectives and Central Bank Tradeoffs Under Flexible Inflation Targeting," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt3pq021t5, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    12. Antoine Lepetit, 2020. "Asymmetric Unemployment Fluctuations and Monetary Policy Trade-Offs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 29-45, April.
    13. Pierrick Clerc, 2021. "The Dynamics of Unemployment and Inflation in New Keynesian Models with Two Labor Margins," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(2-3), pages 301-332, March.
    14. Pedro Gomis‐Porqueras, 2020. "Fiscal Requirements for Dynamic and Real Determinacies in Economies with Private Provision of Liquidity: A Monetarist Assessment," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(1), pages 229-267, February.
    15. Nils M. Gornemann & Keith Kuester & Makoto Nakajima, 2016. "Doves for the Rich, Hawks for the Poor? Distributional Consequences of Monetary Policy," International Finance Discussion Papers 1167, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    16. P. Clerc, 2015. "Credible Wage Bargaining and the Joint Dynamics of Unemployment and Inflation," Working papers 568, Banque de France.
    17. Raissi, Mehdi, 2015. "Flexible inflation targeting and labor market inefficiencies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 283-300.
    18. Arnildo Da Silva Correa & Sergio Afonso Lago Alves, 2016. "A Tale Of Three Gaps: Unemployment, Capacity Utilization And Output," Anais do XLII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 42nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 031, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    19. Carlsson, Mikael & Westermark, Andreas, 2016. "Labor market frictions and optimal steady-state inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 67-79.

    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. Federico Ravenna & Carl E. Walsh, 2009. "The welfare consequences of monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2009-12, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    2. Federico Ravenna & Carl E. Walsh, 2011. "Welfare-Based Optimal Monetary Policy with Unemployment and Sticky Prices: A Linear-Quadratic Framework," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 130-162, April.
    3. Antoine Lepetit, 2020. "Asymmetric Unemployment Fluctuations and Monetary Policy Trade-Offs," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 36, pages 29-45, April.
    4. Raissi, M., 2011. "A Linear Quadratic Approach to Optimal Monetary Policy with Unemployment and Sticky Prices: The Case of a Distorted Steady State," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1146, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Thomas, Carlos, 2008. "Search and matching frictions and optimal monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 936-956, July.
    6. Carl E. Walsh & Federico Ravenna, 2010. "Business Cycles and Labor Market Flows with Sequential Screening," 2010 Meeting Papers 571, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Proaño, Christian R., 2012. "Gradual wage-price adjustments, labor market frictions and monetary policy rules," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 220-235.
    8. Kurozumi, Takushi & Van Zandweghe, Willem, 2010. "Labor market search, the Taylor principle, and indeterminacy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 851-858, October.
    9. Galí, Jordi, 2010. "Monetary Policy and Unemployment," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 10, pages 487-546, Elsevier.
    10. Arseneau, David M. & Chugh, Sanjay K., 2008. "Optimal fiscal and monetary policy with costly wage bargaining," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1401-1414, November.
    11. Abo-Zaid, Salem, 2013. "Optimal monetary policy and downward nominal wage rigidity in frictional labor markets," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 345-364.
    12. Raissi, Mehdi, 2015. "Flexible inflation targeting and labor market inefficiencies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 283-300.
    13. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    14. Van Zandweghe, Willem, 2010. "On-the-job search, sticky prices, and persistence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 437-455, March.
    15. Sergio A. Lago Alves, 2018. "Monetary Policy, Trend Inflation, and Unemployment Volatility," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(4), pages 637-673, June.
    16. Rhee, Hyuk Jae & Song, Jeongseok, 2018. "Labor market friction, nominal wage rigidities, and monetary policy in a small open economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 140-158.
    17. Faia, Ester, 2009. "Ramsey monetary policy with labor market frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 570-581, May.
    18. Mirko Abbritti & Andrea Boitani & Mirella Damiani, 2012. "Labour Market Imperfections, "Divine Coincidence" and Volatility of Employment and Inflation," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 3(1).
    19. Christoffel, Kai & Costain, James & de Walque, Gregory & Kuester, Keith & Linzert, Tobias & Millard, Stephen & Pierrard, Olivier, 2009. "Inflation dynamics with labour market matching: assessing alternative specifications," Bank of England working papers 375, Bank of England.
    20. Di Pace, Federico & Villa, Stefania, 2016. "Factor complementarity and labour market dynamics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 70-112.

    More about this item

    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:eee:moneco:v:59:y:2012:i:2:p:180-195. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505566 .

    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.