Nowadays, with the diffusion of inflation targeting, the main instrument that central banks use to achieve final objectives in the implementation of monetary policy (concerning inflation and unemployment) is the interest rate. Furthermore, recent studies point out that central bank transparency...

We review the literature regarding the impact of financial innovation on the monetary transmission mechanism and on the way the central bank can achieve its ultimate goal, that is to control the price level. We argue that, although the form ofcentral bank instruments and current methods for...

Most central banks are required to or choose to stabilize a price index, largely by manipulating short term interest rates. A serious problem is which index to choose among the national income deflator, wholesale prices, the cost of living, with or eliminating highly volatile commodities such as...

Low price inflation is an official monetary policy target in many countries because of the positive effects it may generate on economic growth. However, if nominal wage rigidities exist, low price inflation may have a negative effect on economic growth. In this paper we test whether there exists...

Article originally published in the volume 60 issue 241 of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review (also known as BNL Quarterly Review).

After two decades of successfully restoring price stability in much of the world economy, central banks begin the next millennium facing a new set of challenges. One key task is how to conduct monetary policy in an era of price stability. Clearly, policymakers would like inflation to remain...

Despite the low inflation of recent years, some observers have wondered whether rapid gains in U.S. asset prices foreshadow rising inflationary pressures. Would U.S. monetary policy be improved if Federal Reserve policymakers reacted systematically to changes in the prices of widely held assets...

Many analysts have advocated using commodity prices as a guide for monetary policy. A necessary condition is that changes in commodity prices are good predictors of future aggregate price changes. This paper examines that proposition. It shows that while commodity prices can help produce more...

The Neal Resolution, now in Congress, would make price stability the dominant goal of monetary policy. The first of these two articles holds that policymakers’ discretion over the price level increases political conflict. Further, it argues that removing this discretion would restore the...