In this paper we present supporting evidence of the existence of heterogeneity in inflation dynamics across euro area … significant inertial (backward looking) behavior in inflation in four of them, while inflation in Germany has a dominant forward … looking component. We then present an optimizing agent model for the area emphasizing the heterogeneity in inflation …

decisions on the EU-wide average of inflation and growth or should it instead focus on (appropriately weighted) national rates … of inflation and growth? We find that a central bank that minimises the national welfare losses reacts less to common … the variability of common shocks is large relative to the inflation bias. For a single country, welfare is lower in this …