IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v20y2009i4p288-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonlinearity in monetary policy: A reconsideration of the opportunistic approach to disinflation

Author

Listed:
  • Marzo, Massimiliano
  • Strid, Ingvar
  • Zagaglia, Paolo

Abstract

The proponents of the 'opportunistic' approach to disinflation suggest that, when inflation is close to the target, the central bank should not counteract inflationary pressures. Orphanides and Wilcox (2002) formalize this idea through a simple policy rule that prescribes a nonlinear adjustment to a history-dependent target for inflation. This embodies a regime change in monetary policy, which reacts to inflation only when this is far from the inflation target. Here we study the opportunistic approach in a New-Keynesian model with sizeable nominal and real rigidites in the form of a positive money demand and adjustment costs for investment. We find that the welfare gains delivered by the opportunistic rule arise from the time-varying inflation target, when welfare is measured by a quadratic approximation of household utility. The nonlinear zone of inaction on inflation improves welfare outcomes only when a central bank loss function with the absolute value of the output gap is used, as proposed by Orphanides and Wilcox (2002).

Suggested Citation

  • Marzo, Massimiliano & Strid, Ingvar & Zagaglia, Paolo, 2009. "Nonlinearity in monetary policy: A reconsideration of the opportunistic approach to disinflation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 288-300, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:20:y:2009:i:4:p:288-300
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954-349X(09)00057-5
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Laidler, David, 2005. "Inflation targets versus international monetary integration: a Canadian perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 35-64, March.
    2. Kim, Jinill, 2000. "Constructing and estimating a realistic optimizing model of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 329-359, April.
    3. Feenstra, Robert C., 1986. "Functional equivalence between liquidity costs and the utility of money," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 271-291, March.
    4. Aksoy, Yunus & Orphanides, Athanasios & Small, David & Wieland, Volker & Wilcox, David, 2006. "A quantitative exploration of the opportunistic approach to disinflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(8), pages 1877-1893, November.
    5. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 2004. "Solving dynamic general equilibrium models using a second-order approximation to the policy function," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 755-775, January.
    6. Galí, Jordi & Rabanal, Pau, 2004. "Technology Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations: How Well Does the RBC Model Fit Post-War US Data?," CEPR Discussion Papers 4522, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 2007. "Optimal simple and implementable monetary and fiscal rules," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1702-1725, September.
    8. Christopher A. Sims & Jinill Kim & Sunghyun Kim, 2003. "Calculating and Using Second Order Accurate Solution of Discrete Time Dynamic Equilibrium Models," Computing in Economics and Finance 2003 162, Society for Computational Economics.
    9. Bomfim, Antulio N & Rudebusch, Glenn D, 2000. "Opportunistic and Deliberate Disinflation under Imperfect Credibility," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(4), pages 707-721, November.
    10. Rotemberg, Julio J & Woodford, Michael, 1992. "Oligopolistic Pricing and the Effects of Aggregate Demand on Economic Activity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(6), pages 1153-1207, December.
    11. Athanasios Orphanides & David W. Wilcox, 2002. "The Opportunistic Approach to Disinflation," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 47-71.
    12. V. V Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 2002. "Can Sticky Price Models Generate Volatile and Persistent Real Exchange Rates?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(3), pages 533-563.
    13. Paustian, Matthias, 2003. "Gains from second-order approximations," Bonn Econ Discussion Papers 25/2003, University of Bonn, Bonn Graduate School of Economics (BGSE).
    14. Trautwein, Hans-Michael, 2005. "Structural aspects of monetary integration: a global perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-6, March.
    15. Jinill Kim & Sunghyun Kim & Ernst Schaumburg & Christopher A. Sims, 2003. "Calculating and Using Second Order Accurate Solutions of Discrete Time," Levine's Bibliography 666156000000000284, UCLA Department of Economics.
    16. 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.
    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. Marzo, Massimiliano & Strid, Ingvar & Zagaglia, Paolo, 2006. "Optimal Opportunistic Monetary Policy in a New-Keynesian Model," Research Papers in Economics 2006:8, Stockholm University, Department of Economics.
    2. M. Marzo, 2004. "Optimal Monetary Policy in a Simple Distorted Economy," Working Papers 511, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    3. Marattin, Luigi & Marzo, Massimiliano & Zagaglia, Paolo, 2013. "Distortionary tax instruments and implementable monetary policy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 219-243.
    4. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe & Martin Uribe, 2004. "Optimal Operational Monetary Policy in the Christiano-Eichenbaum-Evans Model of the U.S. Business Cycle," NBER Working Papers 10724, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 2007. "Optimal simple and implementable monetary and fiscal rules," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1702-1725, September.
    6. Teo, Wing Leong, 2009. "Should East Asia's currencies be pegged to the yen? The role of invoice currency," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 283-308, September.
    7. Sungbae An & Frank Schorfheide, 2007. "Bayesian Analysis of DSGE Models," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2-4), pages 113-172.
    8. Wang, Jian, 2010. "Home bias, exchange rate disconnect, and optimal exchange rate policy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 55-78, February.
    9. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé & Martín Uribe, 2004. "The Research Agenda: Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé and Martín Uribe on Policy Evaluation in Macroeconomics," EconomicDynamics Newsletter, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(1), November.
    10. Marcela Meirelles Aurelio, 2006. "Targeting inflation and the fiscal balance : what is the optimal policy mix?," Research Working Paper RWP 06-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    11. Kim, Jinill & Ruge-Murcia, Francisco J., 2009. "How much inflation is necessary to grease the wheels?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 365-377, April.
    12. Ester Faia & Tommaso Monacelli, 2003. "Ramsey monetary policy and international relative prices," Proceedings, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. L. Marattin & S. Salotti, 2009. "The Response of Private Consumption to Different Public Spending Categories: VAR Evidence from UK," Working Papers 670, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    14. Helle Bunzel & Walter Enders, 2010. "The Taylor Rule and "Opportunistic" Monetary Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(5), pages 931-949, August.
    15. Benigno, Pierpaolo & Woodford, Michael, 2012. "Linear-quadratic approximation of optimal policy problems," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 1-42.
    16. Deming Luo & Stephen Ferris, 2008. "Optimal Simple Monetary Policy Rules in a Small Open Economy with Exchange Rate Imperfections," Carleton Economic Papers 08-03, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    17. Barbara Annicchiarico & Luisa Corrado & Alessandra Pelloni, 2011. "Long‐Term Growth And Short‐Term Volatility: The Labour Market Nexus," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(s1), pages 646-672, June.
    18. Niels Arne Dam & Jesper Gregers Linaa, 2005. "Assessing the Welfare Cost of a Fixed Exchange-Rate Policy," EPRU Working Paper Series 05-04, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    19. Paul R. Bergin & Hyung-Cheol Shin & Ivan Tchakarov, 2017. "Does Exchange Rate Variability Matter for Welfare? A Quantitative Investigation of Stabilization Policies," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Macroeconomic Interdependence, chapter 13, pages 363-386, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Oscar Jorda, 2003. "Model-Free Impulse Responses," Working Papers 305, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.

    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:streco:v:20:y:2009:i:4:p:288-300. 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/525148 .

    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.