Money growth pegging, Taylor rule, status-seeking behavior and the “spirit of capitalism”

This paper analyzes the impact of “spirit of capitalism” on stationary welfare and stability properties of a one-sector Ramsey economy, where the demand of money is motivated by a cash-in-advance constraint on consumption expenditures. Preferences are defined over consumption and capital stock. There is a monetary authority that follows either a money growth pegging rule or an interest rate pegging rule. When a money growth pegging rule is introduced, a unique steady state emerges. A slight desire for status is a sufficient condition for an increase in the money growth rate to exert a local stabilizing effect and to improve stationary welfare. When an interest rate pegging rule is introduced, two steady states may emerge: a “liquidity trap” and an “interior” steady state. Both steady states are locally determinate. Moreover, we show that a slight desire for status is also a sufficient condition to ensure that the stationary welfare at “interior” steady state is higher than the one of the “liquidity trap”. It follows that an increase in the policy rate is, then, an efficient way to exit the “liquidity trap” steady state. Under similar conditions, a higher policy rate increases the stationary welfare at the “interior” steady state.