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Aggregate Dynamics in Models with Heterogeneous Agents
Optimal Monetary Policy in Production Networks
Jen-Jen La’O, Columbia University
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Abstract: This paper studies the optimal conduct of monetary policy in a multi-sector economy in which
firms buy and sell intermediate goods over a production network. We first provide a necessary and
sufficient condition for the monetary policy’s ability to implement flexible-price equilibria in the
presence of nominal rigidities and show that, generically, no monetary policy can implement the
first-best allocation. We then characterize the optimal policy in terms of the economy’s production
network and the extent and nature of nominal rigidities. Our characterization result yields general
principles for the optimal conduct of monetary policy in the presence of input-output linkages:
it establishes that optimal policy stabilizes a price index with higher weights assigned to larger,
stickier, and more upstream industries, as well as industries with less sticky upstream suppliers but
stickier downstream customers. In a calibrated version of the model, we find that implementing the
optimal policy can result in quantitatively meaningful welfare gains.