IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dpr/wpaper/1282.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is the 2 Percent Inflation Target Sufficient? The Wealth Preference Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Naoko Hara
  • Yoshiyasu Ono

Abstract

We construct a macroeconomic model based on household wealth preferences to identify the theoretical conditions under which full-employment and/or stagnation steady states hold. The theoretical conditions also specify the minimum level of inflation target that shifts the economy from stagnation to full employment. Applying these conditions to Japanese and US data, we assess whether both economies have experienced stagnation in recent decades. Our findings suggest that both steady states are feasible in Japan, while only the full-employment steady state holds in the US. If Japan were to transition to full employment solely through monetary expansion, the inflation target would need to be 5% or higher, with an immediate and significant price increase unavoidable. Moreover, even if a 5 percent inflation target had been implemented in the late 1990s, it would have led to a welfare loss owing to the substantial reduction in the real value of financial assets caused by the initial price surge and subsequent inflation, which outweigh welfare gains from consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Naoko Hara & Yoshiyasu Ono, 2025. "Is the 2 Percent Inflation Target Sufficient? The Wealth Preference Approach," ISER Discussion Paper 1282, Institute of Social and Economic Research, The University of Osaka.
    • Handle: RePEc:dpr:wpaper:1282
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iser.osaka-u.ac.jp/static/resources/docs/dp/DP1282.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Coibion & Yuriy Gorodnichenko & Johannes Wieland, 2012. "The Optimal Inflation Rate in New Keynesian Models: Should Central Banks Raise Their Inflation Targets in Light of the Zero Lower Bound?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1371-1406.
    2. Jean-Baptiste Michau, 2024. "Helicopter Drops of Money under Secular Stagnation: From Ponzi to Pigou," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 45-106.
    3. Callum Jones, 2023. "Aging, Secular Stagnation, and the Business Cycle," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(6), pages 1580-1595, November.
    4. Andrade, Philippe & Galí, Jordi & Le Bihan, Hervé & Matheron, Julien, 2021. "Should the ECB adjust its strategy in the face of a lower r★?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    5. Yoshiyasu Ono & Kazuo Ogawa & Atsushi Yoshida, 2004. "The Liquidity Trap And Persistent Unemployment With Dynamic Optimizing Agents: Empirical Evidence," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 355-371, December.
    6. Andrés Blanco, 2021. "Optimal Inflation Target in an Economy with Menu Costs and a Zero Lower Bound," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 108-141, July.
    7. Philippe Andrade & Jordi Gali & Hervé Le Bihan & Julien Matheron, 2021. "Should the ECB Adjust Its Strategy in the Face of a Lower r*?," Working Papers 22-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    8. Gary Hansen & Selahattin Imrohoroglu, 2023. "Demographic Change, Government Debt and Fiscal Sustainability in Japan: The Impact of Bond Purchase by the Bank of Japan," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 50, pages 88-105, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Abbritti, Mirko & Consolo, Agostino & Weber, Sebastian, 2021. "Endogenous growth, downward wage rigidity and optimal inflation," Working Paper Series 2635, European Central Bank.
    2. Dobrew, Michael & Gerke, Rafael & Giesen, Sebastian & Röttger, Joost, 2025. "Make-up strategies with incomplete markets and bounded rationality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Lucian Briciu & Stefan Hohberger & Luca Onorante & Beatrice Pataracchia & Marco Ratto & Lukas Vogel, 2023. "The ECB Strategy Review - Implications for the Space of Monetary Policy," European Economy - Discussion Papers 193, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    4. Consolo, Agostino & Koester, Gerrit & Nickel, Christiane & Porqueddu, Mario & Smets, Frank, 2021. "The need for an inflation buffer in the ECB’s price stability objective – the role of nominal rigidities and inflation differentials," Occasional Paper Series 279, European Central Bank.
    5. Adam, Klaus & Pfäuti, Oliver & Reinelt, Timo, 2025. "Subjective housing price expectations, falling natural rates, and the optimal inflation target," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Billi, Roberto & Galí, Jordi & Nakov, Anton, 2024. "Optimal monetary policy with r∗<0," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Cecion, Martina & Coenen, Günter & Gerke, Rafael & Le Bihan, Hervé & Motto, Roberto & Aguilar, Pablo & Ajevskis, Viktors & Giesen, Sebastian & Albertazzi, Ugo & Gilbert, Niels & Al-Haschimi, Alexander, 2021. "The ECB’s price stability framework: past experience, and current and future challenges," Occasional Paper Series 269, European Central Bank.
    8. Sandra Daudignon & Oreste Tristani, 2022. "Monetary policy and the drifting natural rate of interest," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 22/1057, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    9. Bianchi, Francesco & Melosi, Leonardo & Rottner, Matthias, 2021. "Hitting the elusive inflation target," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 107-122.
    10. Klaus Adam & Henning Weber, 2024. "The Optimal Inflation Target," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_572, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    11. Santoro, Sergio & Weber, Henning, 2023. "Micro price heterogeneity and optimal inflation," Occasional Paper Series 322, European Central Bank.
    12. Takemasa Oda, 2024. "A Quantitative Assessment of the Impact of Deflation in an Aging Economy," IMES Discussion Paper Series 24-E-14, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    13. Eleni Argiri & Ifigeneia Skotida, 2021. "The 2021 review of the monetary policy strategy of the Eurosystem: an economy of forces," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 54, pages 23-57, December.
    14. Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn & Elenev, Vadim & Landvoigt, Tim & Shultz, Patrick, 2021. "Can Monetary Policy Create Fiscal Capacity?," CEPR Discussion Papers 16414, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2022_006 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. repec:ptu:bdpart:e202307 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Kuester, Keith & Corsetti, Giancarlo & Müller, Gernot & Schmidt, Sebastian, 2021. "The Exchange Rate Insulation Puzzle," CEPR Discussion Papers 15689, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Neil R. Mehrotra & Jacob A. Robbins, 2019. "A Model of Secular Stagnation: Theory and Quantitative Evaluation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-48, January.
    19. Mineyama, Tomohide, 2022. "Revisiting the optimal inflation rate with downward nominal wage rigidity: The role of heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    20. Gerke, Rafael & Kienzler, Daniel & Scheer, Alexander, 2022. "On the macroeconomic effects of reinvestments in asset purchase programmes," Discussion Papers 47/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    21. Adam, Klaus & Weber, Henning, 2024. "The optimal inflation target: Bridging the gap between theory and policy," Discussion Papers 44/2024, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    22. Elfsbacka Schmöller, Michaela & Spitzer, Martin, 2022. "Lower for longer under endogenous technology growth," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 6/2022, Bank of Finland.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:dpr:wpaper:1282. 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: Librarian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/isosujp.html .

    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.