Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/152814 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
ECB Working Paper No. 380
Publisher: 
European Central Bank (ECB), Frankfurt a. M.
Abstract: 
We determine optimal discretionary monetary policy in a New-Keynesian model when nominal interest rates are bounded below by zero. Nominal interest rates should be lowered faster in response to adverse shocks than in the case without bound. Such ‘preemptive easing’ is optimal because expectations of a possibly binding bound in the future amplify the effects of adverse shocks. Calibrating the model to the U.S. economy we ?nd the easing effect to be quantitatively important. Moreover, signi?cant welfare losses. Losses increase further when in?ation is partly determined by lagged in?ation in the Phillips curve. Targeting positive in?ation rates reduces the frequency of a binding lower bound, but tends to reduce welfare compared to a target rate of zero. The welfare gains from policy commitment, however, appear signi?cant and are much larger than in the case without lower bound.
Subjects: 
liquidity trap
nonlinear policy
zero lower bound
JEL: 
C63
E31
E52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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