Testing for optimal monetary policy via moment inequalities
提出一种基于矩不等式的新方法，用于检验货币政策是最优承诺还是相机抉择，并应用于美国经济数据。
Summary The specification of an optimizing model of the monetary transmission mechanism requires selecting a policy regime: commonly, commitment or discretion. In this paper we propose a new procedure for testing optimal monetary policy, relying on moment inequalities that nest commitment and discretion as two special cases. The approach is based on the derivation of bounds for inflation that are consistent with optimal policy under either policy regime. We derive testable implications that allow for specification tests and discrimination between the two alternative regimes. The proposed procedure is implemented to examine the conduct of monetary policy in the US economy.