Liquidity traps with global Taylor Rules

An important theme in the writings of Jess Benhabib is the global stability of equilibrium in monetary economies. A key result emerging from his research is that Taylor-type interest rate feedback rules that are bounded below by zero can lead to unintended liquidity traps. The present paper shows that even if the interest rate rule is not bounded below by zero, that is, even if the government could credibly commit to a globally active Taylor rule, self-fulfilling liquidity traps cannot be ruled out. This result is shown to obtain in models with flexible and sticky prices and under continuous and discrete time.