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

Today, tech titans continue to reshape and even disrupt global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan.

John Fourier

2026-10-31 12:38:00 Saturday ET

Today, tech titans continue to reshape and even disrupt global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan.

Today tech titans and billionaires continue to reshape global pharmaceutical investments for both better healthspan and longer lifespan. We discuss, desc

+See More

President Trump poses new threats to Fed Chair monetary policy independence again.

Apple Boston

2025-06-20 08:27:00 Friday ET

President Trump poses new threats to Fed Chair monetary policy independence again.

President Trump poses new threats to Fed Chair monetary policy independence again. We describe, discuss, and delve into the mainstream reasons, conc

+See More

Apple releases the new iOS 13 smartphone features.

John Fourier

2019-07-01 12:35:00 Monday ET

Apple releases the new iOS 13 smartphone features.

Apple releases the new iOS 13 smartphone features. These features include Dark Mode, Audio Share, Memoji, better privacy protection, smart photo collection,

+See More

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms.

Becky Berkman

2018-11-29 11:33:00 Thursday ET

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms.

A congressional division between Democrats and Republicans can cause ripple effects on Trump economic reforms. As Democrats have successfully flipped the Ho

+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

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Apple Boston

2022-02-25 00:00:00 Friday ET

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction

Empirical tests of multi-factor models for asset return prediction  The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) of Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965), and Bla

+See More