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Price-level determinacy and monetary policy in a model with money and trend inflation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2023

Irfan A. Qureshi*
Affiliation:
Asian Development Bank, Metro Manila, Philippines
*
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Abstract

I examine how money and trend inflation shaped US macroeconomic dynamics during the Great Inflation. I develop a business cycle model with positive trend inflation where money is allowed (but not required) to play a role in determining the equilibrium values of inflation and output through non-separable utility, adjustment costs for holding real balances, and the monetary policy reaction function. The Taylor principle changes in this environment. Targeting money guarantees price determinacy even with trend inflation, but these results are sensitive to the inclusion of non-separability and portfolio adjustment costs. The framework is combined with Greenbook data that detect the role of money in the policy reaction function. The response to money was likely not sufficiently strong to complement the reaction to inflation and counteract the high trend inflation observed during the pre-Volcker period, which most likely led to price indeterminacy.

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Articles
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
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Table 1. Model calibration

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Figure 1. Determinacy under positive trend inflation (model without money).Notes: This figure presents the minimum response of inflation (y-axis) required to ensure price determinacy regions under positive trend inflation (x-axis). Each response is conditional on various specifications of the feedback rule and the degree of non-separability, described in the plot title.

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Figure 2. Determinacy under positive trend inflation and non-separability.Notes: This figure presents the minimum response of inflation (y-axis) required to ensure price determinacy regions under positive trend inflation (x-axis). Each response is conditional on various specifications of the feedback rule and the degree of non-separability, described in the plot title.

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Figure 3. Determinacy under positive trend inflation with portfolio adjustment costs.Notes: This figure presents the minimum response of inflation (y-axis) required to ensure price determinacy regions under positive trend inflation (x-axis). Each response is conditional on various specifications of the feedback rule and the degree of non-separability, described in the plot title.

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Figure 4. Determinacy under positive trend inflation (full model with money).Notes: This figure presents the minimum response of inflation (y-axis) required to ensure price determinacy regions under positive trend inflation (x-axis). Each response is conditional on various specifications of the feedback rule and the degree of non-separability, described in the plot title.

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Table 2. Estimates of the policy rule (1969–2002)

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Table 3. Estimates of the policy rule (1969 – 1979 and 1982 – 2002)

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Table 4. Determinacy and counterfactual experiments

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Figure 5. Likelihood of a determinate REE: Robustness (Pre-1979).Notes: The figure summarizes the benchmark results and robustness of results on determinacy using alternative assumptions on price-setting ($\theta$), elasticity of substitution ($\varepsilon$), Frisch elasticity of labor supply ($\varphi$), indexation ($\varrho$), and habit formation ($h$) in the model with ($\psi _\mu \neq 0$) and without ($\psi _\mu = 0$) money. I compute 10,000 draws to compute the fraction of cases (scaled to be between 0 and 100) with determinate solutions for each combination of trend inflation. For each draw, parameters of a Taylor rule are taken from the joint asymptotically normal distribution based on least squares estimates of Taylor rules. Additional robustness checks are offered in Qureshi (>2018).

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Figure 6. Likelihood of a determinate REE: Robustness (Post-1982).Notes: The figure summarizes the benchmark results and robustness of results on determinacy using alternative assumptions on price-setting ($\theta$), elasticity of substitution ($\varepsilon$), Frisch elasticity of labor supply ($\varphi$), indexation ($\varrho$), and habit formation ($h$) in the model with ($\psi _\mu \neq 0$) and without ($\psi _\mu = 0$) money. I compute 10,000 draws to compute the fraction of cases (scaled to be between 0 and 100) with determinate solutions for each combination of trend inflation. For each draw, parameters of a Taylor rule are taken from the joint asymptotically normal distribution based on least squares estimates of Taylor rules.

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Table 5. Estimates of the policy rule—OLS and IV estimates

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Table 6. Estimates of the policy rule (1969–1979): money growth vs. output growth