Does Inflation Targeting Matter for Labour Markets? – Some Empirical Evidence

This paper investigates the impact of inflation targeting on wage formation and unemployment using a panel of 17 OECD countries 1972-2000. Five of the countries included in the study have combined floating exchange rates with explicit inflation targets during the 1990s. Using a theoretical framework for a small open economy, we present simulation results and empirical tests of the model using two different methods. There is some weak evidence that inflation targeting matters for labour markets.