Central Bank Design in General Equilibrium

Abstract

We study the effects of alternative institutional arrangements for the determination of monetary policy in the context of a capital-theoretic, general equilibrium economy. We consider three institutional arrangements for determining monetary policy. The first, unconditional majority voting, always leads to a substantial inflation bias. The second, a simple form of bargaining which we interpret as a policy board, generally improves on the unconditional majority voting outcome. Finally, we consider a constitutional rule which always achieves the social optimum.