Monetary Policy, Expectations and Commitment

Abstract

Commitment in monetary policy leads to equilibria that are superior to those from optimal discretionary policies. A number of interest-rate reaction functions and instrument rules have been proposed to implement or approximate commitment policy. We assess these rules in terms of whether they lead to a rational expectations equilibrium that is both locally determinate and stable under adaptive learning by private agents. A reaction function that appropriately depends explicitly on private sector expectations performs particularly well on both counts.