Should Monetary Policy Respond to Asset Price Bubbles? Some Experimental Results

Abstract

Should central banks respond to asset price bubbles? This paper explores this monetary policy question in a hypothetical economy subject to asset price bubbles. Despite the highly stylized structure of the model, the results reveal several practical monetary policy lessons. First, a monetary authority should generally respond to asset prices as long as asset prices contain reliable information about inflation and output. Second, this finding holds even if a monetary authority cannot distinguish between fundamental and bubble asset price behavior. Third, a monetary authority's desire to respond to asset prices falls dramatically as its preference to smooth interest rates rises. Finally, a monetary authority should not respond to asset prices if there is considerable uncertainty about the macroeconomic role of asset prices.