Federal Reserve System

About: Federal Reserve System is a other organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Monetary policy & Inflation. The organization has 2373 authors who have published 10301 publications receiving 511979 citations.

Doves for the Rich, Hawks for the Poor? Distributional Consequences of Monetary Policy

Abstract: We build a New Keynesian business-cycle model with rich household heterogeneity. A central feature is that matching frictions render labor-market risk countercyclical and endogenous to monetary policy. Our main result is that a majority of households prefer substantial stabilization of unemployment even if this means deviations from price stability. A monetary policy focused on unemployment stabilization helps \Main Street" by providing consumption insurance. It hurts \Wall Street" by reducing precautionary saving and, thus, asset prices. On the aggregate level, household heterogeneity changes the transmission of monetary policy to consumption, but hardly to GDP. Central to this result is allowing for self-insurance and aggregate investment.

Implications of US Tax Policy for House Prices, Rents, and Homeownership

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of the preferential tax treatment of housing, including the mortgage interest deduction, on equilibrium house prices, rents, and homeownership. We build a dynamic model of housing tenure choice that features a realistic progressive tax system in which owner-occupied housing services are tax-exempt, and mortgage interest payments and property taxes are tax deductible. We simulate the eect of various tax reform proposals on the housing market, and nd that repealing existing tax deductions causes house prices to decline and also increases the homeownership rate. Our results challenge the widely held view that the mortgage interest tax deduction promotes homeownership.

The Economics of Standards Wars

Abstract: Policymakers face an increasing number of questions regarding whether markets efficiently choose technological standards. In this essay I survey the economic literature regarding standards, focusing on arguments that markets move between standards either too slowly or too swiftly.

Different Paths to Free Trade: The Gains from Regionalism

Abstract: We compare free trade reached through expanding regional trading blocs to free trade accomplished by multilateral negotiation. With sunk costs, the outcomes are different. Trade in an imperfectly competitive good flows disproportionately more between the original members of a regional agreement even after free trade is reached. They secure a higher welfare level from regionalism than from free trade achieved multilaterally; nonmembers, however, reach a lower welfare level. A surprising result is that world welfare during free trade is greater when it is achieved by the regional path. We conclude with some empirical evidence from the European Union that is consistent with the model.