سیاست پولی بهینه و انعطاف ناپذیری دستمزد اسمی نزولی در بازار کار اصطکاک

This paper studies the optimal long-run inflation rate in a labor search and matching framework in the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity. Optimal monetary policy features positive inflation in the long run; the optimal annual long-run inflation rate for the U.S. economy is slightly below 1 percent with a money demand motive and around 2 percent otherwise. Positive inflation facilitates real wage adjustments and hence it eases job creation and prevents excessive increase in unemployment following adverse productivity shocks. The findings of the paper can also be related to standard Ramsey theory of “wedge smoothing”; with positive inflation under sticky prices, the size and the volatility of the intertemporal wedge are significantly reduced.

This paper studies optimal monetary policy in the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity (DNWR) within a labor search and matching model.1 When nominal wages are downwardly rigid, the optimal long-run inflation rate is strictly positive. The optimal annual inflation rate is slightly below 2 percent with no money demand and slightly below 1 percent when a motive for money demand is introduced. A strictly positive long-run inflation rate is driven by precautionary considerations in the expectations of adverse shocks. Positive inflation allows for downward real wage adjustments (thus “greasing the wheels” of the labor market) that ease job creation and limit the increase in unemployment following adverse shocks. The optimal annual long-run inflation rate suggested by this paper is higher than in a model with neoclassical labor markets, suggesting that the nature of the labor market in which DNWR is introduced does matter for optimal monetary policy prescriptions.

This paper studies the optimal long-run inflation rate within a labor search and matching framework in the presence of downward nominal wage rigidity. The optimal long-run inflation rate is positive- slightly below 1 percent annually with money demand and around 2 percent annually with no motive for money demand. With downwardly rigid nominal wages, positive inflation allows for real wage adjustments following adverse shocks, thus promoting job creation and preventing an excessive increase in unemployment. The results of this paper are related to Ramsey theory of smoothing wedges over time. In this study, the concern is over the “intertemporal wedge”, which is defined here as the deviation of the intertemporal marginal rate of substitution from the intertemporal marginal rate of transformation. Importantly, the asymmetric adjustment cost of nominal wages is part of this wedge. By setting a positive inflation rate, the Ramsey planner acts towards smoothing and reducing the intertemporal wedge and, as a result, taking the economy closer to the efficient allocation. Indeed, the results suggest that the size and the volatility of the wedge are both falling in the inflation rate as the degree of price rigidity is varied. The intertemporal wedge is virtually constant over time when prices are fully flexible. Those findings are in sharp contrast to the results under zero-inflation policy at all dates and states. Under a zero-inflation rate policy, the volatility and the size of the intertemporal wedge are significantly higher.