Recently, it has been argued that trend inflation may be the solution to the puzzle of inflation persistence in the New Keynesian Phillips curve (NKPC). However, incorporating trend inflation into the NKPC raises another serious problem—it lacks a microfoundation. The paper presents a...

In this paper, I present a unified and micro-founded explanation for various types of inflation without assuming ad hoc frictions or irrationality. The explanation is similar to the conventional inflation theory in the sense that an independent central bank can control inflation and also similar...

Historically high levels of private and public debt coupled with already very low short-term interest rates appear to limit the options for stimulative monetary policy in many advanced economies today. One option that has not yet been considered is monetary financing by central banks to boost...

Most explanations for the necessity of an independent central bank rely on the time-inconsistency model and therefore assume that governments are weak, foolish, or untruthful and tend to cheat people. The model in this paper indicates, however, that an independent central bank is not necessary...

Historically high levels of private and public debt coupled with already very low short-term interest rates appear to limit the options for stimulative monetary policy in many advanced economies today. One option that has not yet been considered is monetary financing by central banks to boost...

Should inflation be thought of as "just another tax?" The theoretical basis for doing so dates back to Phelps (1973) and has been greatly refined ever since. Since optimal taxation minimizes the deadweight loss by equalizing the marginal distortions of all available taxes, including the...

Recently, central banks expanded their balance sheets by unconventional actions, including credit easing operations. Although such quasi-fiscal operations are signficant in size and assumed to be crucial for the economy's recovery, little theory is available to explain the possible macroeconomic...

This paper evaluates the link between central bank independence and inflation for the case of Colombia. It develops a theoretical framework concerning central bank independence and inflation. It concludes that central bank independence is an important feature for reducing inflation and partially...

The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical arguments and explore for empirical evidence for the rationale that low inflation persistence may be achieved either by setting up an independent Central Bank or by an exchange-rate based policy. Our theoretical analysis states that the degree...

This paper examines the impact of central bank independence on inflation persistence. Our theoretical analysis predicts that a higher degree of central bank independence leads to a lower inflation persistence and therefore to a higher speed of disinflation. The empirical results, provided using...