2023-10-20-美联储-劳动力市场歧视与种族失业差距_货币政策能有所作为吗_64页_671kb

Introduction
This paper examines labor market discrimination and its impact on racial disparities using a New Keynesian search and matching model. The study analyzes whether shifting to a Shortfalls monetary policy rule, adopted by the Federal Reserve, can reduce the racial unemployment gap compared to a Deviations rule.

Key Model Features

• Incorporates employer taste-based discrimination against Black workers.
• Features search and matching frictions, endogenous separations, and nominal price rigidities.
• Includes an effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates and measures welfare gains.

Key Findings

• Labor Market Dynamics: Discrimination explains higher Black unemployment rates, greater volatility, and a countercyclical racial unemployment gap.
• Monetary Policy Effects:
  • Shifting to a Shortfalls rule reduces the racial unemployment gap and labor market discrimination by about 0.5 percentage points and 3.6%, respectively.
  • It increases average inflation by 0.5 percentage points (from 1.9% to 2.4%).
• Welfare: Distributional benefits are small despite reductions in inequality metrics; welfare gains in consumption-equivalent terms are negligible.

Conclusion

• A Shortfalls rule modestly reduces the racial unemployment gap and discrimination but does little to alleviate inequality in welfare.
• Employer taste-based discrimination significantly shapes labor market disparities, requiring alternative policies or model refinements to address racial inequality more effectively.