Compared with the period 1920-1990, the current monetary policy implementation techniques are relatively well-focused and transparent. In particular, (i) they mostly aim at achieving a well defined operational target (typically the overnight interest rate), (ii) monetary policy operations are...

Empirical data suggest that new firms tend to grow faster than incumbent firms in terms of their productivity. A sticky-price model with learning-by-doing in new firms fits this data and predicts that for plausible calibrations, the optimal long-run inflation rate is positive and between 0.5%...