Question: Why is inflation π > 0 more often than π < 0?

Slides:



Advertisements
Similar presentations
Lecture 9 Central Bank Independence and Conservative Central Banking.
Advertisements

Money & Central Banks Chapter 2, 15,16. Quantity Theory Simplest monetary theory is the Quantity Theory of Money. –Purchasing power of money is equal.
The Effects of Central Bank Independence Daniel West November 6, 2007.
API-120 Prof. J.Frankel LECTURE 6: DYNAMIC INCONSISTENCY OF MONETARY POLICY, AND HOW TO ADDRESS IT Question: Why is inflation, π, often high? Why π > 0.
Three Equation Model IS-PC-MR
Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Frankel, unless otherwise noted API Macroeconomic Policy Analysis I Professor Jeffrey Frankel, Kennedy School of Government,
Presented by David Andrew Singer Massachusetts Institute of Technology Monetary Institutions, Partisanship, and Inflation Targeting co-author: Bumba Mukherjee.
Monetary Policy Strategy: The International Experience
Joint Determination of Income and Interest Rates: The IS/LM Diagram
Macroeconomics - Barro Chapter 15 1 C h a p t e r 1 5 Money and Business Cycles I: The Price-Misperceptions Model.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved. Chapter 14 Stabilization Policy in the Closed and Open Economy.
Role of a Nominal Anchor Ties Down  Expectations Helps Avoid Time-Consistency Problem (Kydland – Prescott) 1. The problem arises from pursuit of short-term.
API120 - Prof. J.Frankel LECTURE 7: SEIGNORAGE & HYPERINFLATION Key Question: Government attempts to stimulate the economy may explain moderate levels.
Macroeconomic Policy and Floating Exchange Rates
The pros, the cons and a little background on the creation of the euro
Chapter 14: Monetary Policy  Objectives of U.S. monetary policy and the framework for setting and achieving them  Federal Reserve interest rate policy.
Exchange Rate Regimes Lecture 2 IME LIUC 2010.
Macroeconomics Chapter 151 Money and Business Cycles I: The Price-Misperceptions Model C h a p t e r 1 5.
Chapter Eighteen Rules for Monetary Policy. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.18 | 2 If monetary policy were predictable, people.
Lecture 4. The Short-Run Tradeoff between Inflation and Unemployment.
Copyright © 2010 Cengage Learning 10 The Short-Run Trade-Off between Inflation and Unemployment.
Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government Exchange rate Regimes: is the Bipolar View Correct? Stanley Fischer Ahmad Bash P13-18.
Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Frankel, unless otherwise noted API Macroeconomic Policy Analysis I Professor Jeffrey Frankel, Kennedy School of Government,
LECTURE 9: SEIGNIORAGE & HYPERINFLATION
API Prof. J. Frankel, Harvard University (III) MONEY & INFLATION LECTURE 6: AGGREGATE DEMAND & AGGREGATE SUPPLY In lectures 3-5 we saw the effects.
Review of Aggregate Supply & Aggregate Demand. Learning Objectives 1.Understand the role of expectations in economic fluctuations 2.Understand how Fiscal.
Money and Banking Lecture 45. Review of the Previous Lecture Long-run Aggregate Supply Curve Equilibrium and Determination of Output and Inflation Impact.
Chapter 22. The limits to stabilization policy: Credibility and uncertainty ECON320 Prof Mike Kennedy.
Monetary Policy. The Optimal Inflation Rate? The Optimal Inflation Rate?  Inflation has steadily gone down in rich countries since the early 1980s. 
Exchange Rates, Business Cycles, and Macroeconomic Policy in the Open Economy: Fixed Exchange Rates Prof Mike Kennedy.
Aggregate Demand (AD) & Aggregate Supply (AS) 1. Neoclassical A.S. curve 2. Modified Keynesian A.S. 3. Expectations-augmented A.S. 4. Rational expectations.
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook Copyright © 2004 South-Western. All rights reserved. Chapter 26 Rules versus Discretion in Monetary Policy.
© 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license.
Chapter 29: Monetary Policy in Canada Copyright © 2014 Pearson Canada Inc.
Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague JEM027 Monetary Economics Central bank‘s independence, transparency.
Krugman/Wells Macroeconomics in Modules and Economics in Modules Third Edition MODULE 38(74) Monetary Policy and the Interest Rate.
Monetary Policy Ch. 15 What’s the relationship between money supply, interest rates, and aggregate demand? How can the Fed use its control of the money.
Chapter 20 Monetary and fiscal policy
How the Fed Conducts Monetary Policy
MANKIW'S MACROECONOMICS MODULES
Chapter 29 Exchange rate regimes
Inflation and Hyperinflation Term Structure of Interest Rates
Macroeconomics Lecture 12 Revision.
The Federal Reserve II. Fed Policy: tools & critique
Inflation Targeting and Financial Stability
Monetary Policy.
Money and Banking Lecture 44.
Last Stuff Quiz Review.
Rethinking the Inflation Target
Tradeoff: inflation & unemployment
The Federal Reserve The Gold Standard: A Critique
The Federal Reserve II. Fed Policy: tools & critique
The Federal Reserve The Gold Standard: A Critique
Fiscal and Monetary Policy: Debates
Policy Tools, Objectives and Targets.
The Case for (and Drawbacks of) Nominal GDP Targets Jeffrey Frankel Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard.
Chapter 14 The Choice of an Exchange Rate Regime
Five Debates over Macroeconomic Policy
Chapter 14 The Choice of an Exchange Rate Regime
NS3040 Fall Term 2018 Keynesian/Monetarist Debates
The Federal Reserve II. Fed Policy: tools & critique
The Federal Reserve The Gold Standard: A Critique
Lecture Monetary Unions
Part 13 FINAL THOUGHTS.
Monetary Policy Strategy: The International Experience
Money and Banking Lecture 30.
The Federal Reserve The Gold Standard: A Critique
Monetary Policy Strategy: The International Experience
Lecture 27 What Should Central Banks Do? Monetary Policy Goals, Strategy, and Tactics.
Exchange Rate Arrangements: Various Options
Presentation transcript:

LECTURE 8: DYNAMIC INCONSISTENCY OF MONETARY POLICY, AND HOW TO ADDRESS IT Question: Why is inflation π > 0 more often than π < 0? Why is π sometimes very high? One of several answers: Declarations of low-inflation monetary policy by central banks are “dynamically inconsistent.” Next question: What institutions can address dynamic inconsistency? API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Dynamic inconsistency: The intuition Assume governments, if operating under discretion, choose monetary policy and hence AD so as to maximize a social function of Y & π. => Economy is at tangency of AS curve & one of the social function’s indifference curves. Assume also that the social function centers on 𝑌 > 𝑌 , even though this point is unattainable, at least in the long run. Assume W & P setters have rational expectations. => πe (& AS) shifts up if rationally-expected E π shifts up. => πe = E π = π on average. economy is at point B on average. Inflationary bias: πe = E π > 0. Lesson: The authorities can’t raise Y anyway, so they might as well concentrate on price stability at point C. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

● • ● ● π πe 𝑌 then to get the higher Y 3. But πe adjusts upward in response to observed π>0. The LR or Rational Expectations equilibrium must feature πe = π. Result: inflationary bias π>0, despite failure to raise Y above 𝑌 . 2. If πe would stay at 0, π ● then to get the higher Y it would be worth paying the price of π>0. πe ● 4. The country would be better off “tying the hands” of the central bank. Result: π=0. And yet Y = 𝑌 (no worse than average under discretion). ● • Barro-Gordon innovation: It is useful to think of society’s 1st choice as Y= 𝑌 (& π=0), even if it is unattainable. 𝑌 𝑌 𝑌 API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Time-Inconsistency of Non-Inflationary Monetary Policy (Romer 11.53)   + Policy-maker minimizes quadratic loss function: where the target . => (11.54) API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Given discretion, the CB chooses the monetary policy and inflation rate where: . Take the mathematical expectation: + Rational expectations: , the inflationary bias. => (11.58) API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Addressing the dynamic consistency problem How can the CB credibly commit to a low-inflation monetary policy? Announcing a target π = 0 is time-inconsistent, because a CB with discretion will inflate ex post, and everyone knows this ex ante. CB can eliminate inflationary bias only by establishing non-inflationary credibility, which requires abandoning the option of discretion, so public will see the CB can’t inflate even if it wants to. CB “ties its hands,” as Odysseus did in the Greek myth. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Addressing the Time-Inconsistency Problem (continued) Reputation Delegation. Rogoff (1985): Appoint a CB with high weight on low inflation a ′ >> a , and grant it independence. It will expand at only π = 𝝈 𝒂′ ( 𝒚 − 𝒚 ) << inflationary bias of discretion. Binding rules. Commit to rule for a nominal anchor: 1. Price of gold 4. Nominal GDP 2. Money growth 5. CPI 3. Exchange rate API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Addressing the Time-Inconsistency Problem (continued) Reputations. With multiple periods, a CB can act tougher in early periods, to build a reputation for monetary discipline. Backus-Driffill (1985) model: people are uncertain if the CB is of hard-money or soft-money “type.” Then even a soft CB may act tougher, to influence subsequent expectations. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Delegation Alesina & Summers: Central banks that are institutionally independent of their governments have lower inflation rates on average. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

for transition economies “Central Bank Independence, Inflation and Growth in Transition Economies,” P.Loungani & N.Sheets, IFDPS95-519  (1995) API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Limitations to the argument for central bank independence Some consider it undemocratic. The argument only works if the right central bankers are chosen. Although independence measures are inversely correlated with inflation, these measures have been debated and, more importantly, the choice to grant independence could be the result of priority on reducing inflation. As with rules to address time-inconsistency, there is at best weak empirical evidence that it succeeds in reducing inflation without loss of output. As with rules, one loses ability to respond to SR shocks. Post-2008-GFC, the goal in advanced countries has been to get π up, not down. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Inflation Targeting (IT) Many developing countries adopt IT: 1999- 2008 Five advanced countries adopt IT: 1990- 93 Agénor & Pereira da Silva, 2013, Fig.1. "Rethinking Inflation Targeting: A Perspective from the Developing World," CGBCR DP 185, U.Manchester. .

Countries adopting IT experienced lower inflation Gonçalves & Salles, 2008, “Inflation Targeting in Emerging Economies…” JDE API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Appendix 1: Introducing disturbances into the Barro-Gordon model à la Rogoff (1985) and Fischer (1987) AD shocks No effect on average inflation: Eπ = σ 𝑎 ( 𝑦 - 𝑦 ). Discretionary monetary policy could usefully offset AD shocks, so they don’t show up as fluctuations in  & y, if lags in monetary policy are shorter than lags in adjustment of W & P. => Choice of rules vs. discretion then becomes choice of eliminating LR inflation bias (E=0) vs. SR shocks. API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Appendix 2: Global inflation began long-term decline after 1990. Why? Better understanding of costs of inflation and the temporariness of the AS tradeoff ? Spread of commitment devices such as central bank independence, hard exchange rate pegs (currency boards & monetary unions), & IT? Rogoff (2003): Globalization & increased competition have reduced  and/or and thereby the inflationary bias . API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

peak: early 80s API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Continued from previous peak: ≈ 1990 peak: early 90s API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

Most remaining advanced countries had granted independence to their central banks by 2003. From Ed Balls,  James Howat, and Anna Stansbury,, “After the financial crisis 1: The case for central bank independence,” March 2016, HKS ,p.26; based on the CBI measure of V. Grilli, D. Masciandaro, & G. Tabellini, 1991, “Political and monetary institutions and public financial policies in the industrial countries,” Economic Policy, pp.342-392; using 2003 data from M.Arnone, B.Laurens, and J. Segalotto. "Measures of central bank autonomy: empirical evidence for OECD, developing, and emerging market economies." IMF Working Papers (2006): 1-38.

Many EM/developing countries had also granted Central Bank Independence by 2003 From Ed Balls,  James Howat, and Anna Stansbury, “After the financial crisis 1: The case for central bank independence,” March 2016, HKS, p.26; based on the CBI measure of V. Grilli, D. Masciandaro & G.Tabellini, 1991, “Political and monetary institutions and public financial policies in the industrial countries,” Economic Policy, pp.342-392; using 2003 data from M.Arnone, B.Laurens and J.Segalotto. "Measures of central bank autonomy: empirical evidence for OECD, developing, and emerging market economies." IMF Working Papers (2006): 1-38.

Appendix 3: Comparison of alternate rules (M1 vs. E vs. CPI …) The choice of anchor depends on: Credibility of the commitment Tradeoff: advantage of time-consistent commitment vs. ability to stabilize short-term shocks Must compare E(Loss) function for M vs. GDP vs. ex.rate vs. P targets) Original treatment due to Rogoff (1985) Other objectives served (e.g., a peg reduces exchange rate risk) API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

6 proposed nominal targets and the Achilles heel of each: API-120 Prof. J.Frankel

END OF LECTURE 8: DYNAMIC INCONSISTENCY OF MONETARY POLICY, AND HOW TO ADDRESS IT API-120 Prof. J.Frankel