IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cpp/issued/v15y1989i1p84-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Bank of Canada and Zero Inflation: A New Cross of Gold?

Author

Listed:
  • R. F. Lucas

Abstract

What are we to make of the policy announcement by Governor John Crow that the primary objective of the Bank of Canada is to eradicate inflation from the Canadian economy? This paper evaluates the policy both from comparative static and dynamic viewpoints. An analysis of credibility suggests that the Bank is wrong in its belief that a failure to eliminate inflation must necessarily imply that inflation will accelerate. Because the policy appears to be based on a misplaced fear of renewed inflation, and because many of the regional economies are not in a position to weather another fight on inflation, the author concludes that the policy is not appropriate at this time.

Suggested Citation

  • R. F. Lucas, 1989. "The Bank of Canada and Zero Inflation: A New Cross of Gold?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 15(1), pages 84-93, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:15:y:1989:i:1:p:84-93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%28198903%2915%3A1%3C84%3ATBOCAZ%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J
    Download Restriction: only available to JSTOR subscribers
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier J. Blanchard & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Hysteresis and the European Unemployment Problem," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1986, Volume 1, pages 15-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Barro, Robert J & Gordon, David B, 1983. "A Positive Theory of Monetary Policy in a Natural Rate Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(4), pages 589-610, August.
    3. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April.
    4. Blanchard, Olivier J. & Summers, Lawrence H., 1987. "Hysteresis in unemployment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-2), pages 288-295.
    5. Thomas J. Sargent & Neil Wallace, 1984. "Some Unpleasant Monetarist Arithmetic," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Brian Griffiths & Geoffrey E. Wood (ed.), Monetarism in the United Kingdom, pages 15-41, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. John McCallum, 1987. "Unemployment in Canada and the United States," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 20(4), pages 802-822, November.
    7. Barro, Robert J., 1976. "Rational expectations and the role of monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-32, January.
    8. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1977. "Rules Rather Than Discretion: The Inconsistency of Optimal Plans," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 473-491, June.
    9. Fischer, Stanley, 1977. "Long-Term Contracts, Rational Expectations, and the Optimal Money Supply Rule," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(1), pages 191-205, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Freedman, Charles, 1990. "La politique monétaire des années 90 : leçons et enjeux," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 66(2), pages 147-186, juin.
    2. Brian O'Reilly, 1998. "The Benefits of Low Inflation: Taking Shock "A nickel ain't worth a dime any more" [Yogi Berra]," Technical Reports 83, Bank of Canada.
    3. Macdonald, Martha, 1995. "Economic restructuring and gender in Canada: Feminist policy initiatives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(11), pages 2005-2017, November.
    4. T.P. Koirala, Ph.D, 2010. "Welfare Costs of Inflation in Nepal: An Empirical Analysis," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Economic Research Department, vol. 22(1), pages 57-68, April.
    5. T.P. Koirala Ph.D, 2010. "Welfare Costs of Inflation in Nepal: An Empirical Analysis," NRB Economic Review, Nepal Rastra Bank, Research Department, vol. 22, pages 57-68, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Akhand Akhtar Hossain, 2009. "Central Banking and Monetary Policy in the Asia-Pacific," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12777.
    2. repec:aeb:wpaper:201604:i:4:y:2016 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Robert J. Gordon, 2011. "The History of the Phillips Curve: Consensus and Bifurcation," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 78(309), pages 10-50, January.
    4. Stanley Fischer, 1995. "Modern Approaches to Central Banking," NBER Working Papers 5064, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Anssi Rantala, 2004. "Labour market flexibility and policy coordination in a monetary union," Macroeconomics 0405001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Thierry Warin, 2006. "From Full Employment to the Natural Rate of Unemployment: A Survey," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 0601, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
    7. Bennett T. McCallum, 1988. "The Role of Demand Management in the Maintenance of Full Employment," NBER Working Papers 2520, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. George Alogoskoufis, 2018. "The Clash of Central Bankers with Labour Market Insiders, and the Persistence of Inflation and Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(337), pages 152-176, January.
    9. George Alogoskoufis, 2016. "Unemployment Persistence, Inflation and Monetary Policy in A Dynamic Stochastic Model of the Phillips Curve," Working Papers 201604, Athens University Of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    10. George Alogoskoufis, 2015. "On the Taylor Rule and Optimal Monetary Policy in a “Natural Rate” Model," Working Papers 201505, Athens University Of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    11. Josh Ryan-Collins, 2015. "Is Monetary Financing Inflationary? A Case Study of the Canadian Economy, 1935-75," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_848, Levy Economics Institute.
    12. Lucas Papademos, 2005. "Macroeconomic theory and monetary policy: the contributions of Franco Modigliani and the ongoing debate," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 58(233-234), pages 187-214.
    13. Aurélien Goutsmedt, 2016. "The New Classical Explanation of the Stagflation: A Psychological Way of Thinking," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 16018, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    14. J.M. Berk, 1998. "Monetary transmission: what do we know and how can we use it?," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 51(205), pages 145-170.
    15. Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Xavier De Luna, 2001. "The efficacy and cost of regime shifts in inflation policies-Evidence from New Zealand and Sweden," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 217-224.
    16. Joe Peek & Eric Rosengren & Geoffrey M. B. Tootell, 1998. "Does the Federal Reserve have an informational advantage? you can bank on it," Working Papers 98-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    17. Willem H. Buiter, 1987. "The Right Combination of Demand and Supply Policies: The Case for a Two-Handed Approach," NBER Working Papers 2333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. H.P. Grãœner & C. Hefeker, 1995. "Domestic pressures and the exchange rate regime: why economically bad decisions are politically popular?," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 48(194), pages 331-350.
    19. Rod Cross & Douglas Strachan, 2001. "Three Pillars of Conventional Wisdom," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 181-200.
    20. van Lelyveld, Iman, 1999. "Inflation or unemployment? Who cares?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 463-484, September.
    21. Goutsmedt, Aurélien & Truc, Alexandre, 2023. "An independent European macroeconomics? A history of European macroeconomics through the lens of the European Economic Review," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpp:issued:v:15:y:1989:i:1:p:84-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iver Chong (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/cpp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.