IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jmoncb/v39y2007i1p133-149.html

Information Content of Wages and Monetary Policy

Author

Listed:
  • HANS GERSBACH
  • VOLKER HAHN

Abstract

We examine whether it is sufficient for central banks to observe and forecast nominal variables only. Analyzing the interplay of wage‐setting unions and a central bank we show that although central banks may not gain more information by directly acquiring data about indicators of real shocks in the economy, such activities are nevertheless beneficial for central banks and yield lower social losses. Moreover, the extent of research activities by central banks should depend on the process of union formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans Gersbach & Volker Hahn, 2007. "Information Content of Wages and Monetary Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(1), pages 133-149, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:39:y:2007:i:1:p:133-149
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0022-2879.2007.00006.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-2879.2007.00006.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0022-2879.2007.00006.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bleaney, Michael, 1996. "Central Bank Independence, Wage-Bargaining Structure, and Macroeconomic Performance in OECD Countries," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 20-38, January.
    2. Hans Peter Grüner & Carsten Hefeker, 1999. "How Will EMU Affect Inflation and Unemployment in Europe?," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 33-47, March.
    3. Agell, Jonas & Ysander, Bengt-Christer, 1993. "Should Governments Learn to Live with Inflation? Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 305-311, March.
    4. Cukierman Alex, 1992. "CENTRAL BANK STRATEGY, CREDIBILITY, AND INDEPENDANCE: THEORY AND EVIDENCE: Compte Rendu par Dominique Cariofillo," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 3(4), pages 581-590, December.
    5. Faust, Jon & Svensson, Lars E O, 2001. "Transparency and Credibility: Monetary Policy with Unobservable Goals," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(2), pages 369-397, May.
    6. Skott, Peter, 1997. "Stagflationary Consequences of Prudent Monetary Policy in a Unionized Economy," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 609-622, October.
    7. David H. Romer & Christina D. Romer, 2000. "Federal Reserve Information and the Behavior of Interest Rates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(3), pages 429-457, June.
    8. Guzzo, Vincenzo & Velasco, Andres, 1999. "The case for a populist Central Banker," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1317-1344, June.
    9. Cukierman, Alex & Lippi, Francesco, 1999. "Central bank independence, centralization of wage bargaining, inflation and unemployment:: Theory and some evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1395-1434, June.
    10. Michael Woodford, 1994. "Nonstandard Indicators for Monetary Policy: Can Their Usefulness Be Judged from Forecasting Regressions?," NBER Chapters, in: Monetary Policy, pages 95-115, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Forteza, Alvaro, 1998. "The Wage Bargaining Structure and the Inflationary Bias," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 599-614, July.
    12. Peek, Joe & Rosengren, Eric S. & Tootell, Geoffrey M. B., 2003. "Does the federal reserve possess an exploitable informational advantage?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 817-839, May.
    13. Alex Cukierman, 1992. "Central Bank Strategy, Credibility, and Independence: Theory and Evidence," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262031981, December.
    14. al-Nowaihi, Ali & Levine, Paul, 1994. "Can reputation resolve the monetary policy credibility problem?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 355-380, April.
    15. Michael Bruno & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1985. "Economics of Worldwide Stagflation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number brun85-1, December.
    16. repec:bla:scandj:v:97:y:1995:i:2:p:245-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Volker Hahn, 2009. "Why the Publication of Socially Harmful Information May Be Socially Desirable," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 09/122, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    2. Hahn, Volker, 2014. "Transparency In Monetary Policy, Signaling, And Heterogeneous Information," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(2), pages 369-394, March.

    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. Cukierman, Alex & Lippi, Francesco, 1999. "Central bank independence, centralization of wage bargaining, inflation and unemployment:: Theory and some evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1395-1434, June.
    2. Robert Franzese, 2001. "Strategic Interactions of Monetary Policymakers and Wage/Price Bargainers: A Review with Implications for the European Common-Currency Area," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 457-486, December.
    3. Nir Klein, 2004. "Collective Bargaining and Its Effect on the Central Bank Conservatism: Theory and Some Evidence," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2004.07, Bank of Israel.
    4. Christoph S. Weber, 2020. "The unemployment effect of central bank transparency," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2947-2975, December.
    5. Holden, Steinar, 2005. "Monetary regimes and the co-ordination of wage setting," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 833-843, May.
    6. Nicola Acocella & Giovanni Di Bartolomeo, 2003. "Wage and Public Expenditure Setting in a Monetary Union," Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 6(1-2), pages 1-16, May - Nov.
    7. Lawler, Phillip, 2002. "Monetary uncertainty, strategic wage setting and equilibrium employment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 35-40, September.
    8. Daniels, Joseph P. & Nourzad, Farrokh & VanHoose, David D., 2006. "Openness, centralized wage bargaining, and inflation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 969-988, December.
    9. Peter Mooslechner & Martin Schürz, 2001. "The Interaction of Wage Bargaining Institutions and an Independent Central Bank – A Methodological Reflection on Current Theories," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 487-506, December.
    10. Hayo, Bernd & Hefeker, Carsten, 2002. "Reconsidering central bank independence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 653-674, November.
    11. Gruener Hans Peter & Hayo Bernd & Hefeker Carsten, 2009. "Unions, Wage Setting and Monetary Policy Uncertainty," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, October.
    12. Francesca Castellani & Xavier Debrun, 2005. "Designing Macroeconomic Frameworks: A Positive Analysis of Monetary and Fiscal Delegation," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1), pages 87-117, March.
    13. Bernd Hayo & Hans Peter Gruner & Carsten Hefeker, 2004. "Monetary policy uncertainty and unionized labour markets," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2003 42, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    14. Aidt, T.S. & Tzannatos, Z., 2005. "The Cost and Benefits of Collective Bargaining," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0541, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    15. Nir Klein, 2003. "Reputation and Indexation in an Inflation Targeting Framework," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2003.13, Bank of Israel.
    16. Lawler, Phillip, 2005. "Central bank inflation contracts and strategic wage setting in a multiunion economy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(3), pages 323-329, March.
    17. Lars Calmfors, 2001. "Wages and Wage-Bargaining Institutions in the EMU – A Survey of the Issues," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 325-351, December.
    18. Diana N. Weymark, 2005. "Inflation, Government Transfers, and Optimal Central Bank Independence," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0502, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    19. Helge Berger & Carsten Hefeker, 2005. "One Country, One Vote? Labor Market Structure and Voting Rights in the ECB," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 20, pages 672-687.
    20. Weymark, Diana N., 2007. "Inflation, government transfers, and optimal central bank independence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 297-315, February.

    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:wly:jmoncb:v:39:y:2007:i:1:p:133-149. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2879 .

    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.