Using the Taylor rule to analyze monetary policy
This material was originally created for
Starting Point: Teaching Economics
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
and is replicated here as part of the SERC Pedagogic Service.
Initial Publication Date: October 14, 2010
Summary
In this exercise, students compute the federal funds rate target values of the Taylor (1993) monetary policy rule. The resulting data can be used to analyze policy during the various Federal Reserve regimes since 1970. For example, the Fed seemed to keep the inflation rate too low during the 1970s stagflation period, had a high target during the disinflation period of the 1980s, and may have kept the interest rate too low in the 2000s. The exercise replicates a key part of the Taylor (1993) paper and improves on it.
CollapseLearning Goals
Students should understand the Taylor monetary policy rule and make inferences on policy conducted under different chairmanships.
Context for Use
This exercise may be tailored to a variety of environments and gradable assignments. It can be taught as a laboratory session, used in lecture to prompt discussion, and may be assigned outside of class. A variety of assignments may be constructed from it, including short or long papers, or shorter assignments.
Description and Teaching Materials
These materials consist of an assignment instruction sheet for students, detailed instructions and notes for the instructor, and a sample completed spreadsheet (using data through 2005).
- Student Instruction Sheet (Microsoft Word 28kB Mar30 10)
- Instructor notes (Microsoft Word 43kB Mar30 10)
- Sample completed assignment (Excel 148kB Jun21 10)
Teaching Notes and Tips
This exercise may be tailored to different levels of student involvement. As presented, students are asked to choose data series, find the data, format it properly, make calculations and construct charts. This may be time-consuming so the instructor may choose to provide parts of the assignment to the student - e.g. the raw or formatted data. It can be used as a basis for a discovery learning approach to monetary policy history, as the basis for short or longer term papers, or stand-alone assignments.
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Assessment
Students may be asked to hand in a paper describing the results and providing some analysis. In addition, students may be required to hand in completed spreadsheets.
References and Resources
The data for the assignment may be found at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database