Evans, George W.
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Browsing Evans, George W. by Author "McGough, Bruce"
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Item Open Access Adaptive Learning, Endogenous Inattention, and Changes in Monetary Policy(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-06-22) Branch, William A.; Evans, George W., 1949-; Carlson, John; McGough, BruceThis paper develops an adaptive learning formulation of an extension to the Ball, Mankiw and Reis (2005) sticky information model that incorporates endogenous inattention. We show that, following an exogenous increase in the policymaker’s preferences for price vs. output stability, the learning process can converge to a new equilibrium in which both output and price volatility are lower.Item Open Access Implementing Optimal Monetary Policy in New-Keynesian Models with Inertia(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-06-03) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe consider optimal monetary policy in New Keynesian models with inertia. First order conditions, which we call the MJB-alternative, are found to improve upon the timeless perspective. The MJB-alternative is shown to be the best possible in the sense that it minimizes policymakers’ unconditional expected loss, and further, it is numerically found to offer significant improvement over the timeless perspective. Implementation of the MJB-alternative is considered via construction of interest-rate rules that are consistent with its associated unique equilibrium. Following Evans and Honkapohja (2004), an expectations based rule is derived that always yields a determinate model and an E-stable equilibrium. Further, the “policy manifold” of all interest-rate rules consistent with the MJB-alternative is classified, and open regions of this manifold are shown to correspond to indeterminate models and unstable equilibria.Item Open Access Indeterminacy and the Stability Puzzle in Non-Convex Economies(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2002-07-25) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe extend common factor analysis to a multi-dimensional setting by considering a bivariate reduced form consistent with many Real Business Cycle type models. We show how to obtain new representations of sunspots and find that there are parameter regions in which these sunspots are stable under learning. However, once the parameters are restricted to coincide with those generated by certain standard models of indeterminacy, we find, under one information assumption, that no stable sunspots exist, and under another information assumption, that they exist only for a very small part of the indeterminacy region. This leads to the following puzzle: why does indeterminacy almost always imply instability in RBC-type models?Item Open Access Monetary Policy and Stable Indeterminacy with Inertia(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2004-03-29) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe examine existence and stability under learning of sunspot equilibria in a New Keynesian model incorporating inertia. Indeterminacy remains prevalent, stable sunspots abound, and inertia in IS and AS relations do not significantly impact the policy region containing stable sunspots.Item Open Access Monetary Policy, Endogenous Inattention, and the Volatility Trade-off(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2004-12-07) Branch, William A.; Carlson, John; Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceThis paper addresses the output-price volatility puzzle by studying the interaction of optimal monetary policy and agents' beliefs. We assume that agents choose their information acquisition rate by minimizing a loss function that depends on expected forecast errors and information costs. Endogenous inattention is a Nash equilibrium in the information processing rate. Although a decline of policy activism directly increases output volatility, it indirectly anchors expectations, which decreases output volatility. If the indirect effect dominates then the usual trade-off between output and price volatility breaks down. This provides a potential explanation for the "Great Moderation" that began in the 1980's.Item Open Access Monetary policy, indeterminacy and learning(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2003-10-11) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceThe development of tractable forward looking models of monetary policy has lead to an explosion of research on the implications of adopting Taylor-type interest rate rules. Indeterminacies have been found to arise for some specifications of the interest rate rule, raising the possibility of increased economic fluctuations due to a dependence of expectations on extraneous sunspots. Separately, recent work by a number of authors has shown that sunspot equilibria previously thought to be unstable under private agent learning can in some cases be stable when the observed sunspot has a suitable time series structure. In this paper we generalize the common factor technique, used in this analysis, to examine standard monetary models that combine forward looking expectations and predetermined variables. We consider a variety of specifications that incorporate both lagged and expected inflation in the Phillips Curve, and both expected and inertial elements in the policy rule. We find that some policy rules can indeed lead to learnable sunspot solutions and we investigate the conditions under which this phenomenon arises.Item Open Access Optimal Constrained Interest-rate Rules(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2005-05-19) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe show that if policy-makers compute the optimal unconstrained interest-rate rule within a Taylor-type class, they may be led to rules that generate indeterminacy and/or instability under learning. This problem is compounded by uncertainty about structural parameters since an optimal rule that is determinate and stable under learning for one calibration may be indeterminate or unstable under learning under a different calibration. We advocate a procedure in which policymakers restrict attention to rules constrained to lie in the determinate learnable region for all plausible calibrations, and that minimize the expected loss, computed using structural parameter priors, subject to this constraint.Item Open Access Representations and Sunspot Stability(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2007-01-01) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceBy endowing his agents with simple forecasting models, or representations, Woodford (1990) found that finite state Markov sunspot equilibria may be stable under learning. We show that common factor representations generalize to all sunspot equilibria the representations used by Woodford (1990). We find that if finite state Markov sunspots are stable under learning then all sunspots are stable under learning, provided common factor representations are used.Item Open Access Stable Finite-State Markov Sunspots(University of Oregon, Dept of Economics, 2006-10-09) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe consider a linear univariate rational expectations model, with a predetermined variable, and study existence and stability of solutions driven by an extraneous finite-state Markov process. We show that when the model is indeterminate there exists a new class of kstate dependent sunspot equilibria in addition to the k-state sunspot equilibria (k-SSEs) already known to exist in part of the indeterminacy region. The new type of equilibria, which we call ergodic k-SSEs, are driven by a finite-state sunspot but can have an infinite range of values even in the nonstochastic model. Stability under econometric learning is analyzed using representations that nest both types of equilibria. 2-SSEs and ergodic 2-SSEs are learnable for parameters in proper subsets of the regions of their existence. Our results extend to models with intrinsic random shocks.Item Open Access Stable Noisy K-state Markov Sunspots(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2002-07-18) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe consider a linear stochastic univariate rational expectations model, with a predetermined variable, and consider solutions driven by an extraneous finite state Markov process as well as by the fundamental noise. We obtain conditions for existence of noisy k-state sunspot equilibria (noisy k-SSEs) and, for the case k=2, of noisy k-state dependent sunspot equilibria (noisy k-*SDSs). k-*SDSs are driven by a finite stable sunspot but have an infinite range of values even in the nonstochastic model. Stability under econometric learning is analyzed using representations that nest both types of solution. For the case k=2, we find that noisy 2-SSEs and noisy 2-*SDSs are learnable for parameters in proper subsets of the regions of their existence.Item Open Access Stable Sunspot Solutions in Models with Predetermined Variables(University of Oregon, Dept. of Economics, 2002-04-17) Evans, George W., 1949-; McGough, BruceWe consider a linear stochastic univariate rational expectations model, with a predetermined variable, and provide alternative representations of SSEs (stationary sunspot equilibria). For a strict subset of the parameter space there exist SSEs that are locally stable under least squares learning provided agents use a common factor representation for their estimated law of motion. These results indicate that for some parameter regions SSEs are more likely to arise under private agent learning than previously recognized.