Imperfect Knowledge And The Pitfalls Of Optimal Control Monetary Policy

Download or read book Monetary Policy Mistakes and the Evolution of Inflation Expectations written by Athanasios Orphanides and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2010 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What monetary policy framework, if adopted by the Federal Reserve, would have avoided the Great Inflation of the 1960s and 1970s? The authors use counterfactual simulations of an estimated model of the U.S. economy to evaluate alternative monetary policy strategies. The authors document that policymakers at the time both had an overly optimistic view of the natural rate of unemployment and put a high priority on achieving full employment. They show that in the presence of realistic informational imperfections and with an emphasis on stabilizing economic activity, an optimal control approach would have failed to keep inflation expectations well anchored, resulting in highly volatile inflation during the 1970s. Charts and tables.