This paper investigates whether or not monetary policy has been conducted efficiently in five selected ASEAN economies. It derives a utility-consistent social loss function, as a metric for welfare, to assess monetary policy efficiency in a small open economy model. An optimal monetary policy that minimises the social loss function is solved using information on structural parameters estimated for a model that represents each of the selected ASEAN-5 countries. The results are largely consistent with common wisdom in the literature, where policies based on credible commitment give the best welfare outcome. The paper further examines the welfare implications of the currently adopted simple monetary policy feedback rule for each of the sample economies. This exercise points out that there is room for improving the performance of monetary policy in each country, and it should be explored further. It also suggests the possibility that monetary authorities in the sample countries may be optimising over an objective function that di§er from the social welfare function derived in the paper.

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