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

The great reversal of antitrust merger review in America

Monica McNeil

2023-10-07 10:24:00 Saturday ET

The great reversal of antitrust merger review in America

Thomas Philippon draws attention to greater antitrust scrutiny in light of the rise of market power and its economic ripple effects. Thomas Philippon (20

+See More

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

Apple Boston

2019-01-08 17:46:00 Tuesday ET

Federal Reserve normalizes the current interest rate hike to signal its own independence from the White House.

President Trump forces the Federal Reserve to normalize the current interest rate hike to signal its own monetary policy independence from the White House.

+See More

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members.

Laura Hermes

2020-06-17 09:23:00 Wednesday ET

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members.

Successful founders focus on their continuous growth, passion, perseverance, and the collective wisdom of most team members. William Ferguson (2013) &

+See More

President Donald Trump criticizes Amazon over taxes and jobs.

Monica McNeil

2017-08-19 14:43:00 Saturday ET

President Donald Trump criticizes Amazon over taxes and jobs.

In a recent tweet, President Donald Trump criticizes Amazon over taxes and jobs. Without providing specific evidence, Trump accuses of the e-commerce retail

+See More

The social media factor serves as a new measure of investor sentiment in addition to the fundamental factors.

Rose Prince

2017-05-07 06:39:00 Sunday ET

The social media factor serves as a new measure of investor sentiment in addition to the fundamental factors.

While the original five-factor asset pricing model arises from a quasi-lifetime of top empirical research by Nobel Laureate Eugene Fama and his long-time co

+See More

Most agile lean enterprises often choose to cut costs strategically to make their respective business models fit for growth.

Daphne Basel

2020-10-27 07:43:00 Tuesday ET

Most agile lean enterprises often choose to cut costs strategically to make their respective business models fit for growth.

Most agile lean enterprises often choose to cut costs strategically to make their respective business models fit for growth. Vinay Couto, John Plansky,

+See More