Monetary and Economic Studies Vol.26 / December 2008

Monetary and Fiscal Policy under Learning in the Presence of a Liquidity Trap

George W. Evans

This paper reports on the findings of Evans, Guse, and Honkapohja (2007) concerning the global economic dynamics under learning in a New Keynesian model in which the interest rate rule is subject to the zero lower bound. Under normal monetary and fiscal policy, the intended steady state is locally but not globally stable. Large pessimistic shocks to expectations can lead to deflationary spirals with falling prices and falling output. To avoid this outcome, we recommend augmenting normal policies with inflation threshold policies: if under normal policies inflation would fall below a suitably chosen threshold, these policies should be replaced by aggressive monetary and fiscal policies that guarantee this lower bound on inflation.

Keywords: Adaptive learning; Monetary policy; Fiscal policy; Zero interest rate lower bound; Indeterminacy


Views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Japan or Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.

Copyright © 2008 Bank of Japan All Rights Reserved.

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