Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism.

Jonah Whanau

2019-04-21 10:07:54 Sun ET

Central bank independence remains important for core inflation containment in the current age of political populism. In accordance with the dual mandate of both price stability and maximum sustainable employment, most central banks seek to solve the dynamic consistency problem on the basis of a key desire to insulate monetary policy decisions from political influence.

A landmark empirical study of cross-country comparisons by Alberto Alesina and Lawrence Summers confirms that countries with better central bank independence experience lower inflation without suffering any real economic output or labor force penalty. An independent central bank can enhance fiscal discipline by reducing the relative likelihood of fiscal dominance and monetization of perennial budget deficits.

Historical experience and economic theory teach us an informative lesson. When monetary policy is subject to political control, people expect dovish expansionary interest rate adjustments and so anticipate higher wages and prices in response. The undesirable economic outcome is stagflation (or the worst-case scenario of both high inflation and high unemployment). It can cost prohibitive welfare losses for the central bank to bring down inflation with subsequent interest rate hikes. Key credible apolitical monetary policy decisions would thus promote price stability with minimal real impact on economic growth, employment, and capital investment.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Credit supply growth drives business cycle fluctuations and often sows the seeds of their own subsequent destruction.

Fiona Sydney

2018-04-26 07:37:00 Thursday ET

Credit supply growth drives business cycle fluctuations and often sows the seeds of their own subsequent destruction.

Credit supply growth drives business cycle fluctuations and often sows the seeds of their own subsequent destruction. The global financial crisis from 2008

+See More

President Trump tweets his key decision to oust State Secretary Rex Tillerson due to intense disagreement over diplomatic affairs.

Fiona Sydney

2018-03-07 07:34:00 Wednesday ET

President Trump tweets his key decision to oust State Secretary Rex Tillerson due to intense disagreement over diplomatic affairs.

President Trump tweets his key decision to oust State Secretary Rex Tillerson after several months of intense disagreement over diplomatic affairs. Trump so

+See More

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Laura Hermes

2019-01-29 10:33:00 Tuesday ET

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work.

Global trade transforms from labor cost arbitrage to high-skill knowledge work. In fact, multinational manufacturers have been trying to create global suppl

+See More

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) appoints Harvard professor Gita Gopinath as its chief economist.

Dan Rochefort

2018-10-09 08:40:00 Tuesday ET

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) appoints Harvard professor Gita Gopinath as its chief economist.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) appoints Harvard professor Gita Gopinath as its chief economist. Gopinath follows her PhD advisor and trailblazer Kenn

+See More

Addendum on empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Rose Prince

2022-03-05 09:27:00 Saturday ET

Addendum on empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Addendum on empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction Fama and French (2015) propose an empirical five-factor asset pricing mode

+See More

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies.

Apple Boston

2019-11-07 14:36:00 Thursday ET

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies.

America expects to impose punitive tariffs on $7.5 billion European exports due to the recent WTO rule violation of illegal plane subsidies. World Trade Org

+See More