Monetary Policy Response to Oil Price Shocks

How should monetary authorities react to an oil price shock? A trade-off between stabilizing inflation and the welfare relevant output gap arises in a distorted economy once one recognizes: (1) that oil (energy) cannot be easily substituted by other factors in the short-run; (2) that there is no fiscal transfer available to policymakers to neutralize the steady-state distortion due to monopolistic competition; and (3) that increases in oil prices also directly affect consumption by raising the price of fuel, heating oil, and other energy sources. The author derives an interest rate feedback rule that mimics the optimal plan in all relevant dimensions but that depends only on observables, namely core inflation, oil price inflation, and the growth rate of output. Illus.