Optimal Monetary Policy in an Economy with Incomplete Markets and Idiosyncratic Shocks

Ahmet Akyol

No 796, Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers from Econometric Society

Abstract: This study investigates an incomplete markets economy in which the saving behavior of a continuum of infinitely lived agents is influenced by precautionary saving motives and borrowing constraints. Two types of assets (interest bearing IOUs and money) enhance the liquidity of agents by providing an additional means of smoothing consumption and by effectively loosening borrowing constraints. Money is valued because of a timing friction in the bond market. In particular, the bond market closes before agents observe their idiosyncratic productivity shock. High inflation rates will transfer resources from agents with high endowments to those holding bonds which can increase welfare. However, in an inflationary environment, agents economize on money holdings, causing a reduction in welfare. Furthermore, different monetary growth rates will imply different seigniorage revenues for government. The level of seigniorage revenues will determine the interest rate on government bonds, and the effective borrowing constraint. This study quantitatively examines the welfare implications of different monetary growth rates. Initial results indicate that higher inflation rates increase welfare.

Date: 2000-08-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://fmwww.bc.edu/RePEc/es2000/0796.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecm:wc2000:0796

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers from Econometric Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().