The Liquidity Trap and Persistent Unemployment with Dynamic Optimizing Agents: Empirical Evidence

Abstract:     
Standard money-in-utility dynamic models assume satiable liquidity preference, and thereby prove the existence of a full-employment steady state. In the same framework, it is known that under insatiable liquidity or wealth preference there is a case where a full-employment steady state does not exist. A liquidity trap then arises and unemployment persists in the steady state. Using both parametric and non-parametric methods, this paper empirically finds that insatiable liquidity/wealth preference is better supported. Thus, without assuming any permanent distortion, we can analyse an effective demand shortage in a dynamic optimization framework.

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