We examine the potential policy role of monetary aggregates by attempting to use them as effectively as possible in the analysis of empirical relationships. We consider three possible roles: as information variables, as indicators of policy actions and as instruments in a policy rule. These...

This paper reviews the progress that the science of monetary policy has made over recent decades. This progress has significantly expanded the degree to which the practice of monetary policy reflects the application of a core set of quot;scientific principlesquot;. However, there remains, and...

This paper discusses what recent economic research tells us about exchange rate pass-through and what this suggests for the control of monetary policy. It first focuses on exchange rate pass-through from a macroeconomic perspective and then examines the microeconomic evidence. In light of this...

In recent years a number of industrialized countries have adopted a strategy for monetary policy known as `inflation targeting.' We describe how this approach has been implemented in practice and argue that it is best understood as a broad framework for policy, which allows the central bank...

This paper surveys the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy beyond the standard interest rate channel by focusing on how monetary policy affects the economy through other asset prices. It outlines how the monetary transmission mechanisms operating through stock prices, real estate prices,...

This paper provides an overview of the transmission mechanisms of monetary policy, starting with traditional interest rate channels, going on to channels operating through other asset prices, and then on to the so-called credit channels. The paper then discusses the implications from this...

The impact of a money stock increase on nominal short-term interest rates has been a hotly debated issue in the monetary economics literature. The most commonly held view -- also a feature of most structural macro models--has an increase in the money stock leading, at least in the short-run, to...

In this paper we rethink the NAIRU concept and examine whether it might have a useful role in monetary policy. We argue that it can, but success depends critically on defining NAIRU as a short-run concept and distinguishing it from a long-run concept like the natural rate of unemployment. We...

This paper discusses recent economic research that demonstrates that the objectives of price stability and stabilizing economic activity are often likely to be mutually reinforcing. Thus, the answer to the title of this paper--"Does stabilizing inflation contribute to stabilizing economic...

Countries with high debt loads are vulnerable to an adverse feedback loop in which doubts by lenders lead to higher sovereign interest rates which in turn make the debt problems more severe. We analyze the recent experience of advanced economies using both econometric methods and case studies...