Endogenous Monetary Policy Regime Change

By Troy Davig and Eric M. Leeper
September 2006
RWP 06-11
Research Division
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City


Abstract

     This paper makes changes in monetary policy rules (or regimes) endogenous. Changes are triggered when certain endogenous variables cross specified thresholds. Rational expectations equilibria are examined in three models of threshold switching to illustrate that (i) expectations formation effects generated by the possibility of regime change can be quantitatively important; (ii) symmetric shocks can have asymmetric effects; (iii) endogenous switching is a natural way to formally model preemptive policy actions. In a conventional calibrated model, preemptive policy shifts agents’ expectations, enhancing the ability of policy to offset demand shocks; this yields a quantitatively significant “preemption dividend.”

Keywords: Threshold switching, Taylor rule, asymmetry, preemptive policy

JEL classification: E31, E32, E52, E58


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