Topic Monetary Policy

The Inflation Targeting Debate

Inflation targeting has become one of the most prominent monetary regimes around the globe. Proponents argue that it reduces the dynamic inconsistency problem of monetary policy and thereby stabilises prices, which in turn promotes growth. Opponents, on the other hand, say that by focusing on price stability inflation targeting neglects other important policy objectives, such as financial stability, ...

Stability, Equity and Monetary Policy

The DIW Europe Lecture is a lecture series by leading policy-makers and academics on the future of Europe. The series aims at fostering and informing the debate on key European policy issues, and at bringing this debate to the heart of Germany's policy-making in Berlin. The President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will look at Europe’s economic and financial future: which...

The Macroeconomic Risks of Undesirably Low Inflation

This paper investigates the macroeconomic risks associated with undesirably low inflation using a medium-sized New Keynesian model. We consider different causes of persistently low inflation, including a downward shift in long-run inflation expectations, a fall in nominal wage growth, and a favorable supply-side shock. We show that the macroeconomic effects of persistently low inflation depend crucially ...

Effectiveness of the ECB Programme of Asset Purchases: Where Do We Stand?

The ECB has engaged in several forms of unconventional monetary policy since 2007. This report documents empirically that the implemented measures were effective. In a counterfactual analysis, the report simulates the effects of an unconventional monetary policy shock of -10 basis points to euro area sovereign yields, consistent with the effect of the first announcement of the Expanded Asset Purchase ...

Interest Rate Lift-Off in the US: Moderate Impact to Date but Emerging Markets Should Brace Themselves

For the first time in almost a decade, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates at the end of 2015 - an initial step toward normalizing monetary policy which has been very expansive since the onset of the financial crisis. Ahead of the move, it was feared that the interest rate reversal might have a considerable impact on emerging markets because the hike would lead to more capital flows being ...

Countries with Large Current Account Deficits Could Find Themselves under Pressure: Eight Questions to Christoph Große Steffen

Rules versus Human Beings, and the Mandate of the ECB

The actions by the European Central Bank (ECB) during the global and European crises have triggered a highly controversial debate, in particular in Germany, about the costs and benefits of the chosen policy path. The article reviews, compares, and evaluates the different arguments made in favor and against ECB policies around three key dimensions—the link of the policy path to price stability, financial ...

Implications for the Euro Area of Divergent Monetary Policy Stances by the Fed and the ECB - The Role of Financial Spillovers: In-Depth Analysis

The Dilemma or Trilemma Debate: Empirical Evidence

One of the central results in international economics is that an economy cannot have at the same time independent monetary policy, free capital flows, and a fixed exchange rate. Over the last few years, however, this so-called Mundell-Flemming ‘trilemma’ has increasingly been challenged. It is argued that given the rising importance and synchronization of capital and credit flows across countries and ...

Monetary Policy and Defaults in the US

This paper uses a structural VAR model to study the effect of monetary policy on the delinquency rate of business loans and consumer credit. The VAR is identified using at the same time several external instruments, which cover different approaches from the literature. Delinquency rates, defined as the rate of loans whose repayment is overdue for more than a month relative to total loans, are found ...