TY  - JOUR
AU  - Atkeson,Andrew
AU  - Chari,V. V.
AU  - Kehoe,Patrick J.
TI  - On the Optimal Choice of a Monetary Policy Instrument
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13398
PY  - 2007
Y2  - September 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13398
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13398.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Andrew Atkeson
Bunche Hall 9381
Department of Economics
UCLA
Box 951477
Los Angeles, CA  90095-1477
Tel: 866/312-9770
Fax: 310/825-9528
E-Mail: andy@atkeson.net

Varadarajan V. Chari
Department of Economics
University of Minnesota
1035 Heller Hall
271 - 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 612/626-5171
Fax: (612) 624-0209
E-Mail: chari@res.mpls.frb.fed.us

Patrick Kehoe
Research Department
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
90 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN  55480-0291
Tel: 612/204-5525
Fax: 612/204-5515
E-Mail: pkehoe@res.mpls.frb.fed.us
AB  - The optimal choice of a monetary policy instrument depends on how tight and transparent the available instruments are and on whether policymakers can commit to future policies. Tightness is always desirable; transparency is only if policymakers cannot commit. Interest rates, which can be made endogenously tight, have a natural advantage over money growth and exchange rates, which cannot. As prices, interest and exchange rates are more transparent than money growth. All else equal, the best instrument is interest rates and the next-best, exchange rates. These findings are consistent with the observed instrument choices of developed and less-developed economies.
ER  -