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.

The (Ir)relevance of Real Wage Rigidity in the New Keynesian Model with Search Frictions

Abstract: We explore the role of real wage dynamics in a New Keynesian business cycle model with search and matching frictions in the labor market. Both job creation and destruction are endogenous. We show that the model generates counterfactual inflation and labor market dynamics. In particular, it fails to generate a Beveridge curve: vacancies and unemployment are positively correlated. Introducing real wage rigidity leads to a negative correlation, and increases the magnitude of labor market flows to more realistic values. However, inflation dynamics are only weakly affected by real wage rigidity. This is because of the presence of labor market frictions, which generate long-run employment relationships. The measure of real marginal cost that is relevant for inflation dynamics via the Phillips curve contains a dynamic component that does not necessarily move with real wages.

How does Future Income Affect Current Consumption

Abstract: This paper tests a straightforward implication of the basic Life Cycle model of consumption: that current consumption depends on expected lifetime income. The paper projects future income for a panel of households and finds that consumption is closely related to projected current income, but unrelated to predictable changes in income. However, future income uncertainty has an important effect: consumers facing greater income uncertainty consume less. The results are consistent with "buffer-stock" models of consumption like those of Deaton [1991] or Carroll [1992a, 1992b], where precautionary motives greatly reduce the willingness of prudent consumers to consume out of uncertain future income.

The Specification and Influence of Asset Markets

Abstract: This paper is a chapter in the forthcoming Handbook of International Economics. It surveys the literature on the specification of models of asset markets and the implications of differences in specification for the macroeconomic adjustment process. Builders of portfolio balance models have generally employed "postulated" asset demand functions, rather than deriving these directly from micro foundations. The first major sec-tion of the paper lays out a postulated general specification of asset markets and summarizes the fundamental short-run results of portfolio balance models using a very basic specification of asset markets. Then,rudimentary specifications of a balance of payments equation and goods market equilibrium conditions are supplied, so that the dynamic distribution effects of the trade account under static and rational expectations with both fixed goods prices and flexible goods prices can be analyzed.The second major section of the paper surveys and analyzes microfoundation models of asset demands using stochastic calculus. The microeconomic theory of asset demands implies some but not all of the properties of the basic specification of postulated asset demands at the macrolevel. Since the conclusions of macroeconomic analysis depend crucially on the form of asset demand functions, it is important to continue to explore the implications of micro foundations for macro specification.