This paper examines how alternative views of the monetary transmission mechanism affect the choice of a monetary policy rule. The main finding is that many different structural models indicate that the same simple monetary policy rule—one in which the central bank’s target short-term interest rate reacts to inflation and to real output—would perform well. Such rules work well even in models whe...

We study the transmission of monetary policy in credit economies where money serves as a medium of exchange. We find that—in contrast to current conventional wisdom in policy-oriented research in monetary economics—the role of money in transactions can be a powerful conduit to asset prices and ultimately, aggregate consumption, investment, output, and welfare. Theoretically, we show that the ca...

onetary policy has traditionally been viewed as the process by which a central bank uses its influence over the supply of money to promote its economic objectives. For example, Milton Friedman (1959, p. 24) defined the tools of monetary policy to be those “powers that enable the [Federal Reserve] System to determine the total amount of money in existence or to alter that amount.” In fact, the v...

From the outset of Monetary Union, the ECB has assigned a “prominent role” to monetary analysis in its monetary policy strategy. This article describes a number of new tools for monetary analysis that have been developed on the basis of ECB research. It discusses how these tools are used to interpret monetary developments and ultimately to offer insights that support the conduct of monetary pol...