PAUL JOHNSON
  • HOME
  • BLOG
  • Kiviq Software Instructions
  • Kaivik Software Instructions
  • Kaivik Manuscript and instructions
  • Original Vernon Smith Double Auction Experiment Paper
  • Experimental Economics Labs
  • Economic Education Resources
  • Kaivik Manuscript and more instructions

Only Paul Could Go To Changchun

Central Bank Reputation, Cheap Talk and Transparency as Substitutes for Commitment: Experimental Evidence

12/25/2016

 
Here.


We implement a repeated version of the Barro-Gordon monetary policy game in the laboratory and ask whether reputation serves as a substitute for commitment, enabling the central bank to achieve the efficient Ramsey equilibrium and avoid the inefficient, time-inconsistent one-shot Nash equilibrium. We find that reputation is a poor substitute for commitment. We then explore whether central bank cheap talk, policy transparency, both cheap talk and policy transparency or economic transparency yield improvements in the direction of the Ramsey equilibrium under the discretionary policy regime. Our findings suggest that these mechanisms have only small or transitory effects on welfare. Surprisingly, the real effects of supply shocks are better mitigated by a commitment regime than by any discretionary policy. Thus, we find that there is no trade-off between flexibility and credibility.

From:

John Duffy
University of California, Irvine

Frank Heinemann
Technische Universität Berlin

Comments are closed.
Proudly powered by Weebly