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Author
David Staines
Last Updated
7 years ago
AbstractI add price-dispersion to a benchmark zero-inflation steady-state New Keynesian model. I do so by assuming the economy has experienced a history of shocks, which have caused the Central Bank to miss its target for inflation and output, as opposed to the conventional practice of linearizing around a non-stochastic steady state. I then allow the inflation targeting Central Bank to optimize policy. The results are truly starting.\par The model simultaneously embeds endogenous inflation and interest rate persistence in an institutionally-consistent optimizing framework. This creates a meaningful trade-off between inflation and output-gap stabilization following demand and technology shocks. This resolves the so-called 'Divine Coincidence', explains the preference for 'coarse-tuning' over 'fine-tuning' and the focus in policy circles on inflation forecast targeting. When estimated the model performs well against a battery of demanding econometric tests. \par Along the way, a novel econometric test of the 'Divine Coincidence' is developed- it is rejected in favor of a substantial trade-off. A welfare equivalence is derived between a class of New Keynesian models and their flexible price counterparts suggesting previous proposed resolutions may be inadequate. Finally, a novel paradox relating the 'Divine Coincidence' to 'fine-tuning' stabilization policy is derived.