Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/153132 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 698
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
This paper studies optimal monetary policy rules in a framework with sticky prices, matching frictions and real wage rigidities. Optimal monetary policy is given by a constrained Ramsey plan in which the monetary authority maximizes the agents’ welfare subject to the competitive economy relations and the assumed monetary policy rule. I find that optimal policy should deviate from the strict inflation targeting since the policy maker faces a typical unemployment/inflation trade-off. In this context and unlike a standard New Keynesian model stabilizing inflation is not sufficient to stabilize the marginal cost (hence the output gap) since the latter also depends on the evolution of unemployment. The matching frictions add a congestion externality since the number of unemployed in the market and their bargaining power reduce the probability of forming matches. Hence optimal monetary policy features unemployment targeting along with inflation targeting.
Subjects: 
matching frictions
optimal monetary policy rules
wage rigidity
JEL: 
E52
E24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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