Policies should be paired with objectives on which they have the most influence: such is the main idea of Mundell?s principle of effective market classification. This paper examines and discusses whether this principle is fulfilled in the Czech economy. The author deals with the difficulty of...

This paper discusses central bank losses and develops a formal framework for assessing the sustainability of its balance sheet. Analyzing the consequences of economic convergence in depth, it emphasizes the role played by the risk premium and equilibrium real exchange rate appreciation. A...

This paper asks to what extent were the last one hundred policy decisions taken by the Czech National Bank (CNB) considered predictable by the market. The results are threefold. First, CNB policy decisions can be considered as predictable on average. Second, policy predictability followed no...

As the independence of national central banks in the European Union is one of the main institutional features of the EU’s monetary constitution, this paper considers whether central-bank monetary policy is conducted independently or if it is affected by political pressure. Specifically, the...

This paper shows that an economy’s behavior differs significantly according to assumptions made on the formation of inflation expectations. We analyzed the behavior of an open economy in a regime of explicit inflation targeting with commitment. The economy is exposed to three different shocks...

This paper is primarily concerned with assessing the bias of the CNB’s predictions in relation to undershooting of the inflation target. We conclude that the inflation prediction error has decreased over time. We further point out that GDP growth and interest rates were, respectively, above...

There are three possible price movements in a market economy: stability, inflation, and deflation. Inflation and deflation are defined in this article as changes in the purchasing power of money caused by the money creation. Inflation and deflation have many asymmetric, and even some symmetric,...

The article contains a general analysis of the exchange rate convergence process of EU and eurozone-candidate countries. Emphasis is given to an analysis of the exchange rate policy of member states within the ERM/ERM2 mechanism (beginning several years before the introduction of the euro) and...

The article summarizes papers presented at two seminars organized by the Czech Economic Association in November 1999 held in Ostrava and Jindøichùv Hradec, respectively. The first seminar, ?Financial Indicators and the Czech Economy,? attracted papers aimed at both presenting the theory and...