Imperfect Central Bank Communication - Information versus Distraction
Abstract
Much of the information communicated by central banks is noisy or imperfect. This paper considers the potential benefits and limitations of central bank communications in a model of imperfect knowledge and learning. It is shown that the value of communicating imperfect information is ambiguous. There is a risk that the central bank can distract the public; this means that the central bank may prefer to focus its communication policies on the information it knows most about. Indeed, conveying more certain information may improve the public's understanding to the extent that it 'crowds out' a role for communicating imperfect information.Download Info
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Paper provided by International Monetary Fund in its series IMF Working Papers with number 08/60.Length: 26
Date of creation: 01 Mar 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:08/60
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Related research
Keywords: Transparency;Other versions of this item:
- Spencer Dale & Athanasios Orphanides & Pär Österholm, 2011. "Imperfect Central Bank Communication: Information versus Distraction," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 7(2), pages 3-39, June.
- Spencer Dale & Athanasios Orphanides & Par Osterholm, 2008. "Imperfect Central Bank Communication: Information versus Distraction," Working Papers 2008-1, Central Bank of Cyprus.
- Dale, Spencer & Orphanides, Athanasios & Österholm, Pär, 2008. "Imperfect Central Bank Communication: Information versus Distraction," Working Paper Series 2008:3, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
- E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
- E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-03-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBA-2008-03-25 (Central Banking)
- NEP-MON-2008-03-25 (Monetary Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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- Athanasios Orphanides & John C. Williams, 2002. "Imperfect knowledge, inflation expectations, and monetary policy," Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory 2002-04, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Eijffinger, Sylvester C W & Hoogduin, Lex & van der Cruijsen, Carin A B, 2008.
"Optimal Central Bank Transparency,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
6889, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- van der Cruijsen, Carin A.B. & Eijffinger, Sylvester C.W. & Hoogduin, Lex H., 2010. "Optimal central bank transparency," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8), pages 1482-1507, December.
- Carin A.B. van der Cruijsen & Sylvester C.W. Eijffinger & Lex H. Hoogduin, 2008. "Optimal Central Bank Transparency," DNB Working Papers 178, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
- Cruijsen, C.A.B. van der & Eijffinger, S.C.W. & Hoogduin, L.H., 2008. "Optimal Central Bank Transparency," Discussion Paper 2008-59, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
- Cruijsen, C.A.B. van der & Eijffinger, S.C.W. & Hoogduin, L.H., 2010. "Optimal Central Bank transparency," Open Access publications from Tilburg University urn:nbn:nl:ui:12-4163962, Tilburg University.
- Svensson, Lars E O, 2009. "Transparency under Flexible Inflation Targeting: Experiences and Challenges," CEPR Discussion Papers 7213, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Takeshi Kimura & Kosuke Aoki, 2009.
"Central Bank's Two-Way Communication with the Public and Inflation Dynamics,"
2009 Meeting Papers
108, Society for Economic Dynamics.
- Kosuke Aoki & Takeshi Kimura, 2008. "Central Bank's Two-Way Communication with the Public and Inflation Dynamics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0899, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
- Martin Cihák & Katerina SmÃdková & Ales Bulir, 2008. "Writing Clearly: ECB's Monetary Policy Communication," IMF Working Papers 08/252, International Monetary Fund.
- Beechey, Meredith & Österholm, Pär, 2012. "Policy Interest-Rate Expectations in Sweden: A Forecast Evaluation," Working Paper 127, National Institute of Economic Research.
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