Synopses & Reviews
An exploration of the problem of formulating monetary policy in practice.
About the Author
Otmar Issing is a member of the Executive Board, European Central Bank.Vítor Gaspar is Special Advisor, Banco de Portugal.Oreste Tristani is Principal Economist, DG Research, European Central Bank.David Vestin is Economist, DG Research, European Central Bank.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments; Introduction; Outline of the two lectures; First lecture: Monetary Policy in Uncharted Territory. 1. Introduction; 2. Uncharted territory: unique historical events; 3. Achieving price stability; 4. Avoiding excess volatility in inflation, output and the interest rate; 5. Pragmatic monetarism: The Bundesbank; 6. A stability-oriented strategy: the ECB; 7. Conclusions. Second lecture: Imperfect Knowledge, Learning and Conservatism. 1. Introduction; 2. Time inconsistency, cost-push shocks and Rogoff's conservatism; 3. Empirical output gap uncertainty; 4. Output gap uncertainty, learning and conservatism; 5. Different degrees of CB's knowledge and information; 6. Conclusions; References.