Nominal rigidities, rational inattention, and the optimal monetary policy

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ou, Shengliang; Yin, Penghui; Zhang, Donghai; Zhang, Renbin
• 署名单位: Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Central University of Finance & Economics; National University of Singapore; Shandong University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2025.106129
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: sticky prices; menu costs; INFORMATION; consumption; DYNAMICS; inflation; attention; shocks

摘要

Optimal monetary policy has traditionally assigned greater importance to stabilizing prices in sectors with stickier prices, based on multi-sector models assuming full information or exogenous information frictions. This paper challenges the prevailing policy prescription by introducing rational inattention with endogenous information acquisition. Interestingly, the optimal policy assigns a smaller weight to sectors with stickier prices when the cost of information acquisition is sufficiently high. This counterintuitive result arises from the endogenous relationship between firms' attention and nominal rigidities: firms in sectors with more flexible prices pay less attention to macroeconomic conditions. We provide empirical evidence supporting this mechanism.