linking interest rates to forecasts of future inflation. Such rules have been found to give rise to aggregate fluctuations due … interest-rate rules whereby the central bank responds to a measure of past inflation. The consensus view that has emerged is … inflation are likely to ensure global stability provided that the coefficient on lagged interest rates is greater than unity …

Observed inflation targets around the industrial world are concentrated at two percent per year. This chapter … investigates the extent to which the observed magnitudes of inflation targets are consistent with the optimal rate of inflation … inflation ranges from minus the real rate of interest to numbers insignificantly above zero. Furthermore, we argue that the zero …