IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cda/wpaper/5.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Macroeconomic Loss Function: A Critical Note

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Mayer

    (Department of Economics, University of California Davis)

Abstract

The standard loss function gives the same weight to positive and negative deviations from the output and inflation targets. This short note criticizes this symmetry assumption. If the period covered is long enough output growth in excess of the target, and often also inflation rates that are below target, should be counted as gains instead of losses.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Mayer, 2003. "The Macroeconomic Loss Function: A Critical Note," Working Papers 5, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:cda:wpaper:5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.dss.ucdavis.edu/files/GbtTq1sjU7CD9eDQFnt5Hrn1/02-2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Waud, Roger N, 1976. "Asymmetric Policymaker Utility Functions and Optimal Policy Under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(1), pages 53-66, January.
    2. Horowitz, Ann R., 1987. "Loss functions and public policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 489-504.
    3. Ruge-Murcia, Francisco J, 2003. "Inflation Targeting under Asymmetric Preferences," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(5), pages 763-785, October.
    4. Cecchetti, Stephen G, 2000. "Making Monetary Policy: Objectives and Rules," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 43-59, Winter.
    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. Ivan K. Cohen & Fabrizio Ferretti & Bryan McIntosh, 2014. "Decomposing the misery index: A dynamic approach," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Efrem Castelnuovo, 2006. "Describing The Fed’S Conduct With Taylor Rules: Is Interest Rate Smoothing Important?," The IUP Journal of Monetary Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(3), pages 57-77, August.
    3. Efrem Castelnuovo, 2003. "Taylor Rules and Interest Rate Smoothing in the US and EMU," Macroeconomics 0303002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Efrem Castelnuovo, 2007. "Taylor Rules And Interest Rate Smoothing In The Euro Area," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 75(1), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Efrem Castelnuovo, 2004. "Describing the Fed's conduct with simple Taylor rules: is interest rate smoothing important?," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2003 12, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.

    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. al-Nowaihi, Ali & Stracca, Livio, 2002. "Non-standard central bank loss functions, skewed risks, and certainty equivalence," Working Paper Series 0129, European Central Bank.
    2. Thomas Mayer, 2003. "The macroeconomic Loss Function: a Critical Note," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(6), pages 347-349.
    3. Peter J. Stemp, 2009. "Optimal Monetary Policy with Asymmetric Targets," Monash Economics Working Papers 33-09, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    4. A. O. Baranov, 2020. "On the Need to Achieve a Compromise between Economic Policy Goals in the Light of Overcoming Stagnation in Russia," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 31(5), pages 475-484, September.
    5. Efrem Castelnuovo, 2002. "Squeezing the Interest Rate Smoothing Weight with a Hybrid Expectations Model," Macroeconomics 0211006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Pierdzioch, Christian & Rülke, Jan-Christoph & Stadtmann, Georg, 2015. "Central banks’ inflation forecasts under asymmetric loss: Evidence from four Latin-American countries," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 66-70.
    7. repec:pri:cepsud:83svensson is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Abdul Qayyum, 2006. "Money, Inflation, and Growth in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 45(2), pages 203-212.
    9. CHADHA, Jagjit & SCHELLEKENS, Philip, "undated". "Monetary policy loss functions: two cheers for the quadratic," Working Papers 1999002, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    10. Hannes Draack, 2018. "Monetary Policy with Imperfect Signals: The Target Problem in a New Monetarist Approach," ECON - Working Papers 296, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    11. Frewer, Geoff, 1985. "Optimal Destabilisation, Active Learning, and the Choice of Step Length in Policy Reform," Economic Research Papers 269230, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    12. Weitzman Nagar, 2007. "Asymmetry in Monetary Policy: An Asymmetric Objective Function and a New-Keynesian Model," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2007.02, Bank of Israel.
    13. Hamid Baghestani & Bassam Abual-Foul, 2010. "Evidence on Forecasting Inflation Under Asymmetric Loss," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 105-110, May.
    14. Frewer, Geoff, 1985. "Optimal Destabilisation, Active Learning and the Choice of Step Length in Policy Reform," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 265, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:1990_011 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. 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.
    17. Ali Al‐Nowaihi & Livio Stracca, 2003. "Behavioural Central Bank Loss Functions, Skewed Risks and Certainty Equivalence," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 71(s1), pages 21-38, September.
    18. Paolo Surico, 2002. "Uncovering Policy Makers' Loss Function," Macroeconomics 0210003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Libman, Emiliano, 2017. "Asymmetric Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies in Latin America," MPRA Paper 78864, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Demosthenes N. Tambakis, 2007. "Fear of Floating and Social Welfare," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 3(3), pages 183-204, September.
    21. Vítor Castro, 2008. "Are Central Banks following a linear or nonlinear (augmented) Taylor rule?," NIPE Working Papers 19/2008, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    22. Lee, Dong Jin & Son, Jong Chil, 2013. "Nonlinearity and structural breaks in monetary policy rules with stock prices," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-11.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Loss functions; macro policy evaluation;

    JEL classification:

    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination
    • E50 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - General
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

    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:cda:wpaper:5. 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: Letters and Science IT Services Unit (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/educdus.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.