It is an open question whether and how indexed wage contracts reduce welfare or raise average inflation. This paper … analyzes the impact of indexed wage contracts on inflation and social welfare in a Barro–Gordon model with discretionary … monetary policy by endogenizing social costs of indexation. Main results are: Wage indexation reduces the inflation bias but …

Keynesian model we show that, if households have hyperbolic discounting, small positive rates of inflation can be optimal. In … our baseline calibration, the optimal rate of inflation is 2.1% and remains positive across a wide range of calibrations. …

stability has been fostered by improved monetary policy and by associated changes in the behaviour of inflation, which has …

stronger bargaining position when they try to prevent a cut in money wages. If inflation is so low that some money wages have … to be cut, workers‘ stronger bargaining position requires higher unemployment in equilibrium. However, inflation is more … stable when money wage rigidity binds, providing an incentive for monetary policy makers to choose a low target for inflation …

economic performance under inflation targets, and arguments that the flexible exchange rate has undermined real economic …

independence and inflation. Making use of data on the evolution of central bank independence over time and controlling for possible … country’s inflation performance. Examining a cross-section of up to 69 countries, we are able to show that granting a central … bank more autonomy does not necessarily lead to better inflation performance. To lower inflation by increasing independence …