Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, Vol.1, Issue 4, 2023

We show that in a New Keynesian model with household heterogeneity, fiscal policy can be a perfect substitute for monetary policy. Three simple conditions for consumption taxes, labor taxes, and the government debt level are sufficient to induce the same consumption and labor supply of each household and, thus, the same allocation as interest rate policies. When monetary policy is constrained by a binding lower bound, a currency union, or an exchange rate peg, fiscal policy can therefore replicate any allocation that hypothetically unconstrained monetary policy would generate.

I study the transmission mechanism of Quantitative Easing (QE) in the form of large-scale asset purchases in the mortgage market to aggregate consumption. To this end, I develop a New Keynesian model that features heterogeneous households, a microfounded housing market, and frictional intermediation. This model helps explain the empirical evidence suggesting that QE increases aggregate consumption by raising house prices. I find that higher house prices account for around half of QE’s stimulative effects, with higher labor income contributing the remaining half.

We study the effects of movements in aggregate lending standards on macroeconomic aggregates and inequality. We show in a New Keynesian model with heterogeneous households and housing that a looser loan-to-value (LTV) ratio stimulates housing demand, nondurable consumption, and output. Our model implies that the LTV shock transmits to macroeconomic aggregates through higher household liquidity and a general-equilibrium increase in house prices and labor income. We also show that a looser LTV ratio redistributes housing wealth from the top 10% of the housing wealth distribution to the bottom 50%, indicating an overall decrease of inequality.