Approximating Multisector New Keynesian Models

Can learnability save new-Keynesian models?

Bennett McCallum (2009), applying Evans and Honkapohja’s (2001) results, argues that “learnability” can save New-Keynesian models from their indeterminacies. He claims the unique bounded equilibrium is learnable, and the explosive equilibria are not. However, he assumes that agents can directly observe the monetary policy shock. Reversing this assumption, I find the opposite result: the bounded...

Interest Rate Pegs in New Keynesian Models∗

The conventional policy perspective is that lowering the interest rate increases output and inflation in the short run, while maintaining inflation at a higher level requires a higher interest rate in the long run. In contrast it has been argued that a Neo-Fisherian policy of setting an interest-rate peg at a fixed higher level will increase the inflation rate. We show that adaptive learning ar...

Keynesian, Old Keynesian, and New Keynesian Wage Nominalism

Wage nominalism has long been a puzzle for economists. The original Keynesian explanation related it to a coordination failure in the context of decentralized union bargaining, a problem now in a largely nonunion U. S. labor market. Moreover, Keynesianism assumed wage nominalism as the norm rather than explaining it. New Keynesian explanations, based on implicit contracts, menu costs, and other...

Keynesian Models of Unemployment

Intermediate Macroeconomics: Keynesian Models

At the risk of some oversimplification, the leading alternatives to the neoclassical / real business cycle model for understanding short run fluctuations are Keynesian models. I phrase this in the plural because there are multiple different versions of the Keynesian model, which differ in terms of how the aggregate supply block of the economy is formulated. Whereas neoclassical models emphasize...