The objective of this paper is to reexamine the monetary mechanism, that is the mechanism through which the monetary authority by controlling certain financial variables achieves (more or less) effective control over nominal income. We propose to argue that the view of the monetary mechanism which has been widely accepted, at least until very recently, by both monetarists and Keynesians and whi...

In this paper we explore the influence of inflation rigidity on the monetary policy transmission mechanism in a model featuring the hybrid Phillips curve. We compare the New Keynesian Phillips curve and the hybrid Phillips curve for their contribution to reproducing stylized empirical facts about business cycles driven by monetary policy shocks. Variables’ induced volatility and the dynamics of...

The imperfect nature of resource mobility plays a surprisingly small role in most policy models. In the standard benchmark new Keynesian model, for example, it is costly for firms to adjust their selling prices, but these same firms can costlessly hire and fire workers and both workers and capital can costlessly shift from one firm to another. In this paper, I review some of the implications fo...

We study the monetary-transmission mechanism with a data set that includes quarterly observations of every insured U.S. commercial bank from 1976 to 1993. We find that the impact of monetary policy on lending is stronger for banks with less liquid balance sheets—i.e., banks with lower ratios of securities to assets. Moreover, this pattern is largely attributable to the smaller banks, those in t...

Aggregate demand models extending IS/LM fixed price framework yield an enhancement mechanism of the traditional monetary transmission mechanism, the credit channel, which, according to the credit view, works through the ‘balance sheet channel’ and the ‘bank lending channel’. In this paper I modify the augmented IS/LM model assuming that investments may be financed by both internal and external ...

Changes in monetary policy are typically implemented gradually, an empirical observation known as interest-rate smoothing. This finding is a puzzle for most monetary models because they predict an immediate response of monetary policy to macroeconomic developments. We propose an explanation of optimal interest-rate smoothing by applying the recent lesson from the related literature on the monet...

The Federal Reserve has implemented policies during the past six years that rely on channels of transmission to the real economy that economic models have assumed to exist but seldom tested or on channels that were simply presumed not to exist. I discuss the board channels of monetary policy transmission that may allow forward guidance and balance sheet policies to affect the economy. The assum...