Research Economists

Alexander L. Wolman

My research involves monetary policy and macroeconomics. Current areas of research include optimal monetary policy without commitment when prices are sticky, the nonlinear properties of the Calvo-Yun model, and the interaction between fixed costs of price adjustment and firm-level uncertainty in macroeconomic models.

Publications

Academic Journals

"Steady State Equilibrium with State-Dependent Pricing," with A. Andrew John, Journal of Monetary Economics, forthcoming.

"Fiscal Policy and Regional Inflation in a Currency Union," with Margarida P. Duarte, Journal of International Economics, forthcoming.

"The Frequency and Costs of Individual Price Adjustment," Managerial and Decision Economics 28 (September 2007), 531-552.

Discussion of 'Reconsidering the Natural Rate Hypothesis in a New Keynesian Framework,' by Andrew Levin and Tack Yun, Journal of Monetary Economics 54 (July 2007), 1366-1371.

"The Zero Bound and the Term Structure in a Nonlinear Economic Model," Seoul Journal of Economics 19 (Spring 2006), 147-170.

"Real Implications of the Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 37 (April 2005), 273-296.

"Monetary Discretion, Pricing Complementarity and Dynamic Multiple Equilibria," with Robert G. King, Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (November 2004), 1513-1553.

"Optimal Monetary Policy," with Aubhik Khan and Robert G. King, Review of Economic Studies 70 (October 2003), 825-860.

"State-Dependent Pricing and the General Equilibrium Dynamics of Money and Output," with Michael Dotsey and Robert G. King, Quarterly Journal of Economics 114 (May 1999), 655-690.

Other

"What Should the Monetary Authority Do When Prices Are Sticky?" with Robert G. King, in Monetary Policy Rules , John B. Taylor ed., University of Chicago Press, 1999, 349-398.

"Inflation Targeting in a St. Louis Model of the 21st Century," with Robert G. King, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review , May/June, 1996.

"Currency Quality and Changes in the Behavior of Depository Institutions," with Hubert Janicki, Nashat Moin and Andrea Waddle, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly, forthcoming.

"Bond Price Premiums," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 92 (Fall 2006), 317-336.

"Trend Inflation, Firm-Specific Capital, and Sticky Prices," with Andreas Hornstein, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 91 (Fall 2005), 57-83.

"Inflation and Changing Expenditure Shares," with Fan Ding, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 91(Winter 2005). 1-20.

"Boom and Bust in Telecommunications," with Elise A. Couper and John P. Hejkal, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 89 (Fall 2003), 1-24.

"Potential Consequences of Linear Approximation in Economics," with Elise A. Couper, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 89 (Winter 2003), 51-68.

"A Primer on Optimal Monetary Policy with Staggered Price-Setting," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 87 (Fall 2001), 27-52.

"The Frequency and Costs of Individual Price Adjustment," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 86 (Fall 2000), 1-22.

"Sticky Prices, Marginal Cost, and the Behavior of Inflation," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 85 (Fall 1999), 29-48.

"Staggered Price Setting and the Zero Bound on Nominal Interest Rates," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 84 (Fall 1998), 1-24.

"Zero Inflation and the Friedman Rule: A Welfare Comparison," Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly 83 (Fall 1997), 1-22.

Recent Unpublished Papers

"The Calvo Model without Local Approximation," with Andreas Hornstein, manuscript, April 2007.

"Synchronization and Staggering in a Model of State-Dependent Pricing," with A. Andrew John, manuscript, June 2005.

"The Optimal Rate of Inflation with Trending Relative Prices," manuscript, May 2005.

"Heterogeneous Frequency of Price Adjustment," with A. Andrew John, manuscript, September 2003.

"The Pitfalls of Monetary Discretion," with Aubhik Khan and Robert G. King, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond working paper #01-8, October 2001.

Editorial Positions

Associate Editor, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2005-

Teaching Experience

University of Virginia, Fall 1999, Graduate Monetary Economics

Biographical Sketch

Education

B.A.   Carleton College, 1988

M.A.   University of Virginia, 1993

Ph.D.   University of Virginia, 1996