Generating Real Persistent Effects of Monetary Shocks: How Much Nominal Rigidity Do We Really Need?

This paper attempts to assess whether money can generate persistent economic" fluctuations in dynamic general equilibrium models of the business cycle. We show that a small" nominal friction in the goods market can make the response of output to monetary shocks large" and persistent if it is amplified by real wage rigidity in the labor market. We also argue that" given the level of real wage rigidity that is observed in developed countries nominal stickiness might be sufficient for money to produce economic fluctuations as persistent" as those observed in the data.