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5. the Lucas Critique and Monetary Policy

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5. the Lucas Critique and Monetary Policy 5. The Lucas Critique and Monetary Policy John B. Taylor, May 6, 2013 Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique • Highly influential (Nobel Prize) • Adds to the case for policy rules • Shows difficulties of econometric policy evaluation when forward-looking expectations are introduced • But it left an impression of a “mission impossible” for monetary economists – Tended to draw researchers away from monetary policy research to real business cycle models • Nevertheless it was constructive – An alternative approach suggested through three examples: • One focussed on monetary policy – inflation-unemployment tradeoff • The other two focused on fiscal policy – consumption and investment • Worth studying in the original First Derive the Inflation-Output Tradeoff Derive "aggregate supply" function : Supply yit in market i at time t is given by P c yit yit yit where P yit is "permanent" or "normal" supply c yit is "cyclical" supply Supply curve in market i c e yit ( pit pit ) pit is the log of the actual price in market i at time t e pit is the perceived (in market i) general price level in the economy at time t Find conditional expectation of general price level pit pt zit 2 pt is distributed normally with mean ptand variance 2 zit is distributed normally with mean 0 and variance Thus 2 2 pt p is distributed N t p 2 2 2 it pt e 2 2 2 pit E( pt pit , I t1 ) pt [ /( )]( pit pt ) (1 ) pit pt where 2 /( 2 2 ) Covariance divided by the variance Now, substitute the conditional expectation e pit (1 ) pit pt into the market supply function c e yit ( pit pit ) to get c yit [ pit ((1 ) pit pt )] ( pit pt ) Aggregating and adding in normal level we get : c yt ( pt pt ) Sometimes called “Lucas Supply Function” yt ( pt pt ) y pt Consider a policy intervention and the critique Now suppose inflation follows pt pt1 t where 2 t has a mean and variance Then the aggregate supply equation becomes yt ( pt pt1) y pt If estimated by regressing the output gap (yt - y pt ) on inflation ( pt pt1) and a constant, the regression equation would appear to show that monetary policy could bring yt above y pt permanently by raising inflation. But that would be a seriously mistaken conclusion because the coefficient would change and therefore the constant in the estimated equation would change. But a constructive critique? How? Other examples: consumption ct ky pt ut Friedman’s (1957) permanent income model of consumption y (1 ) i E(y I ) pt ti t i0 if actual income follows the stochastic process yt a wt vt where wt is a random walk and vtis serially uncorrelated, then E(y I ) (1 ) j y ,for i 0 ( depends on variances of w,v) ti t t j j0 Thus, the consumption function is j ct k(1 )yt k (1 ) yt j ut j0 and the coefficients on income can be estimated. Now consider a policy intervention in the Lucas consumption example Suppose we cut taxes by x permanently at time 0. • Then income will rise by x permanently • Then E(y0+i|I0) up by x for all i≥0. • Permanent income yp0 will rise by x. • According to the theory, consumption c0 will rise by kx • However, the estimated econometric model implies that consumption c0 increases by k(1-βλ)x which is much less than kx. Only over time would ct rise up to kx. Application: Temporary Fiscal Stimulus in 2008 billions of dollars 11,200 10,800 \ 10,400 without rebate disposable personal income 10,000 personal consumption 9,600 expenditures 9,200 Jan 07 Jul 07 Jan 08 Jul 08 Consumption Regressions Lagged PCE .794 .832 (.057) (.056) Rebate payments .048 .081 (.055) (.054) Disp. Pers. Income .206 .188 (w/o rebate) (.056) (.055) Oil Price ($/bbl ------ -1.007 lagged 3 months) (.325) R2 .999 .999 Dependent variable = PCE Oil price = West Texas Intermediate. Sample period is January 2000 to October 2008. Standard errors in parentheses. General Formulation of the Critique Using a framework yt1 F(yt , xt ,, t ) to evaluate policy (changes in xt ) will in general lead to mistakes, because will change when xt changes. The alternative framework is to specify a policy rule for the instrument (money growth, interest rate) xt G(yt ,,t ) which implies that yt1 F(yt , xt , (), t ) A policy change is thus a change in which affects and thereby the stochastic process for yt ..
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