Price Level Determinacy Without Control of a Monetary Aggregate

42 Pages Posted: 25 May 2006 Last revised: 22 Sep 2022

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Michael Woodford

Columbia University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics

Date Written: August 1995

Abstract

It is shown that the price level remains determinate even in the case of two kinds of radical money supply endogeneity -- an interest rate peg by the central bank, and a 'free banking' regime -- that are commonly supposed to imply loss of control of the price level. Price level determination under such regimes can be understood in terms of a 'fiscal theory of the price level,' according to which the equilibrium price level is that level that makes the real value of nominally denominated government liabilities equal to the present value of expected future government budget surpluses. The application of the fiscal theory of the price level to exogenous-money regimes is sketched as well.

Suggested Citation

Woodford, Michael, Price Level Determinacy Without Control of a Monetary Aggregate (August 1995). NBER Working Paper No. w5204, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=225268

Michael Woodford (Contact Author)

Columbia University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Economics ( email )

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