Giorgio Pizzutto

The new neoclassical synthesis combines ideas of Keynesian and classical economics. It involves the application of intertemporal optimization and rational expectations. These are applied to the analysis of pricing and output decisions in a Keynesian context as well to the consumption, investment and labor supply decisions proper of real business cycle models. Moreover the model supposes an endogenous monetary rule linking nominal rate of interest to inflation and output targets. In this paper we survey this new macroeconomic model and evaluate how money affect output and employment once that the instrument of monetary policy is the interest rate instead of quantity of money. Then we explain why the new synthesis cannot account for the persistent effect of monetary policy and the business cycle asymmetry.