This paper assesses the ECB’s performance, which the author finds to be seriously lacking but which is of paramount importance to understanding euroland’s ongoing stagnation and fragility. A main finding is that the series of policy blunders which characterized the bank’s conduct features...

Challenging the conventional wisdom that structural problems are to blame for the euro area’s protracted domestic demand stagnation, this paper sets out to shed some fresh light on the role of the ECB in the ongoing EMU crisis. Contrary to the widely held interpretation of the ECB as an...

This paper analyzes how imperfect exchange rate pass-through affects the transmission of the CPI inflation targeting optimal monetary policy. In the short run, delayed pass-through constraints monetary policy more than incomplete pass-through and interest rate smoothing amplifies this effect. In...

In December 1997, the Czech Republic became the first transitional economy to adopt an inflation-targeting (IT) framework. This paper addresses two important topics: optimal inflation-targeting horizon and optimal speed of disinflation. A small, aggregate, forward-looking model of the Czech...

This paper proposes a simple framework for analyzing a continuum of monetary policy rules characterized by differing degrees of credibility, in which commitment and discretion become special cases of what we call quasi commitment. The monetary policy authority is assumed to formulate optimal...

Sufficiently flexible labour markets are considered an important precondition for countries to benefit from membership in the monetary union. Economic policy coordination within the European Community is extensive and includes issues related to labour market structures. In this paper we study...

Liquidity traps occur when the natural nominal interest rate becomes negative. In a model with capital price dynamics explicitly considered, we find that shocks in the future can cause current and lasting liquidity traps. We propose that the central bank can prevent or fix liquidity traps by...

This paper models an inflation forecast density framework that closely resembles actual policy makers behaviour regarding the determination of the modal point, the uncertainty and asymmetry in the inflation forecasts. The framework combines policy makers prior information about these parameters...

Most prices and interest rates display fluctuating levels that embody extractable energy and equivalent amounts of money. Such fluctuations are also associated with varying degrees of uncertainty. Shannon's derivations of spectral entropy and information content offer computational techniques...

This study proposes the adoption of money growth rules as indicator variables of monetary policies by the countries converging to a common currency system, in particular, by the eurozone candidate countries. The analytical framework assumes an inflation target as the ultimate policy goal. The...