This paper considers the Great Inflation of the 1970s in Japan and Germany. From 1975 onward, these countries had low inflation relative to other large economies. Traditionally, this success is attributed to stronger discipline on the part of Japan and Germany’s monetary authorities—e.g.,...

This paper assesses the impact of the various “unconventional” U.S. Federal Reserve policies and fiscal policies, introduced during the 2007–09 financial crisis period, on credit market spreads. I also examine the impact of the “conventional” monetary policy stance, defined as the...

Several aspects of the difficulties of policy at the zero lower bound are discussed: The difficulty of credible commitment to higher future inflation, as most New Keynesian models imply is necessary; the need for fiscal and monetary policy coordination; and the pitfalls in the taking of...

Central banking transparency is now a topic of great interest, but its impact on the implementation of monetary policy has not been studied. This paper documents that anticipated changes in the target federal funds rate complicate open market operations. We provide theoretical and empirical...

Although central banks recently expanded their balance sheets by unconventional policy actions, little theory is available to explain how and when central banks’ balance sheets affect inflation and impose restrictions on monetary policy. A DSGE model predicts that central banks’ balance...

This paper investigates the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy in the post-ERM period in the United Kingdom. Using a simple DSGE New Keynesian model of non-cooperative monetary and fiscal policy interactions under fiscal intraperiod leadership, we demonstrate that the past policy in the...

The United States introduced several programs in response to the financial crisis. We examine responses involving Treasury debt—the Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), Supplementary Financing Program (SFP), Treasury issuance, open-market operations—and associated impacts on...

In this paper, we consider whether long-term inflation expectations have become better anchored in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. We do so using survey-based measures as well as financial-market-based measures of long-term inflation expectations, where we construct the market-based measures from...

In this paper, we examine the performance and robustness of optimized interest-rate rules in four models of the euro area that differ considerably in terms of size, degree of aggregation, relevance of forward-looking behavioral elements, and adherence to microfoundations. Our findings are...

"Forecast targeting", forward-looking monetary policy that uses central-bank judgment to construct optimal policy projections of the target variables and the instrument rate, may perform substantially better than monetary policy that disregards judgment and follows a given instrument rule. This...