I 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 of central bank instruments and current methods for...

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

The article is a revised version of a speech the author gave at a conference in memory of Paolo Baffi, former Governor of Italy's Central Bank. The author recalls his personal experience at the Banca d'Italia and his intellectual exchanges with the Governor and other leading officers, within the...

The article analyses the conduct of monetary policy in Italy between 1947 and 1978, with special emphasis on its impact on prices, the business cycle and the balance of payments. It contrasts the stabilization policies of 1947-1948 with the control of interest rates and monetary aggregates in...

The appreciation of the dollar in the aftermath of the euro launch came as a surprise to most observers; furthermore, the traditional models fail to capture its dynamics. Is this a confirmation of Mussa's, Meese's and Rogoff's results, according to which no structural model can perform better...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the specific impact of the introduction of the euro on Italian consumer inflation that can be attributed solely to the rounding of prices to figures that are "attractive" in euro. The empirical analysis is based on a large sub-set of prices used by Istat...

The presence of price stickiness implies that in the short term adjustment to demand or supply shocks takes place through quantities. This paper approaches the issue of nominal price stickiness in Italy by analysing the cross-sectional distributions of the changes in sectoral consumer price...

The article discusses the possibility to cope with inflation, public deficit and balance of payments deficit without recurring to deflationary policies.

In this article will discuss several topics of macroeconomics and monetary policy and relate them with the contributions and ideas of Franco Modigliani. I will focus in particular on the structure and main features of theoretical systems able to adequately describe the role of money in the...