IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/spmain/hal-03429880.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Flexible inflation targeting vs nominal GDP targeting in the euro area

Author

Listed:
  • Christophe Blot

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

  • Jérôme Creel

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po)

  • Xavier Ragot

    (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po, ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

We assess the pros and cons of nominal GDP targeting vis-à-vis flexible inflation targeting regime. We show that the benefit of a regime shift towards nominal GDP targeting in the euro area might be small. Moreover, nominal GDP targeting is not concerned with financial stability. Finally, targeting nominal GDP would make ECB communication very difficult. If the aim of a regime shift were to bring the ECB to pay more attention to growth, it would be more straightforward to fix a dual mandate and to set an explicit target for real output growth or the unemployment rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Xavier Ragot, 2015. "Flexible inflation targeting vs nominal GDP targeting in the euro area," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03429880, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03429880
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03429880
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal-sciencespo.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03429880/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Belongia, Michael T. & Ireland, Peter N., 2015. "A “Working” Solution To The Question Of Nominal Gdp Targeting," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 508-534, April.
    2. Albanesi, Stefania, 2007. "Inflation and inequality," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1088-1114, May.
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f6h8764enu2lskk9p4oqi4ibn is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Laurence M. Ball & Niamh Sheridan, 2004. "Does Inflation Targeting Matter?," NBER Chapters, in: The Inflation-Targeting Debate, pages 249-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Denise R. Osborn & Marianne Sensier, 2009. "Uk Inflation: Persistence, Seasonality And Monetary Policy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 56(1), pages 24-44, February.
    6. Alvaro Angeriz & Philip Arestis, 2007. "Monetary policy in the UK," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(6), pages 863-884, November.
    7. Blot, Christophe & Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul & Labondance, Fabien & Saraceno, Francesco, 2015. "Assessing the link between price and financial stability," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 71-88.
    8. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert & Fabien Labondance, 2014. "Dealing with the ECB's triple mandate?," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/53ccj34tat8, Sciences Po.
    9. Frappa, Sébastien & Mésonnier, Jean-Stéphane, 2010. "The housing price boom of the late 1990s: Did inflation targeting matter?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 243-254, December.
    10. Matthias Doepke & Martin Schneider, 2006. "Inflation and the Redistribution of Nominal Wealth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 114(6), pages 1069-1097, December.
    11. Christian Gillitzer & John Simon, 2015. "Inflation Targeting: A Victim of Its Own Success," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 11(4), pages 259-287, September.
    12. Luca Benati, 2008. "Investigating Inflation Persistence Across Monetary Regimes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 123(3), pages 1005-1060.
    13. Assenmacher-Wesche, Katrin, 2006. "Estimating Central Banks' preferences from a time-varying empirical reaction function," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(8), pages 1951-1974, November.
    14. Kevin D. Sheedy, 2014. "Debt and Incomplete Financial Markets: A Case for Nominal GDP Targeting," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 45(1 (Spring), pages 301-373.
    15. Fazio, Dimas M. & Tabak, Benjamin M. & Cajueiro, Daniel O., 2015. "Inflation targeting: Is IT to blame for banking system instability?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 76-97.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/53ccj34tat80tq7f6ff0qvvjtj is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Jonung, Lars & Fregert, Klas, 2008. "Inflation Targeting Is a Success, So Far: 100 Years of Evidence from Swedish Wage Contracts," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-25.
    18. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2015. "Has Inflation Targeting Changed The Conduct Of Monetary Policy?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    19. King, Mervyn, 1997. "Changes in UK monetary policy: Rules and discretion in practice," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 81-97, June.
    20. Stephen G. Cecchetti & Craig Hakkio, 2009. "Inflation targeting and private sector forecasts," NBER Working Papers 15424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Johnson, David R., 2002. "The effect of inflation targeting on the behavior of expected inflation: evidence from an 11 country panel," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 1521-1538, November.
    22. Stephen G. Cecchetti & Margaret M. McConnell & Gabriel Perez–Quiros, 2002. "Policymakers’ Revealed Preferences and the Output–Inflation Variability Trade–off: Implications for the European System of Central Banks," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(4), pages 596-618, June.
    23. Ismail Genc & Minsoo Lee & Candelaria Rodríguez & Zachary Lutz, 2007. "Time Series Analysis of Inflation Targeting in Selected Countries," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 15-27.
    24. Carmine Trecroci & Matilde Vassalli, 2010. "Monetary Policy Regime Shifts: New Evidence From Time‐Varying Interest Rate Rules," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(4), pages 933-950, October.
    25. Baxa, Jaromír & Horváth, Roman & Vašíček, Bořek, 2014. "How Does Monetary Policy Change? Evidence On Inflation-Targeting Countries," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 593-630, April.
    26. Andrew T. Levin & Fabio M. Natalucci & Jeremy M. Piger, 2004. "The macroeconomic effects of inflation targeting," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 86(Jul), pages 51-80.
    27. Jerome Creel & Paul Hubert, 2008. "Has the Adoption of Inflation Targeting Represented a Regime Switch? Empirical evidence from Canada, Sweden and the UK," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2008-25, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    28. Akhter Faroque & Ryan Minor, 2009. "Inflation regimes and the stability of the pass-through of wages to consumer prices in Canada," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(8), pages 1003-1017.
    29. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2015. "Has Inflation Targeting Changed The Conduct Of Monetary Policy?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    30. Refet S Gürkaynak & Andrew Levin & Eric Swanson, 2010. "Does Inflation Targeting Anchor Long-Run Inflation Expectations? Evidence from the U.S., UK, and Sweden," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(6), pages 1208-1242, December.
    31. Lin, Shu & Ye, Haichun, 2007. "Does inflation targeting really make a difference? Evaluating the treatment effect of inflation targeting in seven industrial countries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2521-2533, November.
    32. Taylor Mark P. & Davradakis Emmanuel, 2006. "Interest Rate Setting and Inflation Targeting: Evidence of a Nonlinear Taylor Rule for the United Kingdom," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, December.
    33. Evan F. Koenig, 2012. "All in the family: the close connection between nominal-GDP targeting and the Taylor Rule," Staff Papers, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Mar.
    34. William Seyfried & Dale Bremmer, 2003. "Inflation Targeting as a Framework for Monetary Policy: A Cross‐Country Analysis," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 36(3), pages 291-299, September.
    35. McCallum, Bennett T., 2015. "Nominal GDP targeting: Policy rule or discretionary splurge?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 76-80.
    36. Garín, Julio & Lester, Robert & Sims, Eric, 2016. "On the desirability of nominal GDP targeting," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 21-44.
    37. Taylor, John B., 1993. "Discretion versus policy rules in practice," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 195-214, December.
    38. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/114p6m6s0395gqm0es4g7kgv3u 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. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6gjj4t61tm90aauv9v241g1u29 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Christophe Blot & Paul Hubert, 2018. "Monetary policy with transitory vs. permanently low growth," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03404318, HAL.
    3. Christophe Blot & Paul Hubert, 2018. "Monetary policy with transitory vs. permanently low growth," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/6gjj4t61tm9, Sciences Po.

    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. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5nf0balck3981o9ril8lj58pud is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Christophe Blot & Jérôme Creel & Xavier Ragot, 2015. "Flexible inflation targeting vs nominal GDP targeting in the euro area," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/5nf0balck39, Sciences Po.
    3. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2015. "Has Inflation Targeting Changed The Conduct Of Monetary Policy?," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/9543 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6150 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f4rshpf3v1umfa09lat09b1bg is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Paul Hubert, 2010. "Monetary Policy, Imperfect Information and the Expectations Channel," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/f4rshpf3v1u, Sciences Po.
    8. Paul Hubert, 2010. "Monetary policy, imperfect information and the expectations channel [Politique monétaire,information imparfaite et canal des anticipations]," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-04095385, HAL.
    9. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/f4rshpf3v1umfa09lat09b1bg is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Ardakani Omid M. & Kishor N. Kundan, 2018. "Examining the success of the central banks in inflation targeting countries: the dynamics of the inflation gap and institutional characteristics," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 1-19, February.
    11. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/f4rshpf3v1umfa09lat09b1bg is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Drakos, Anastassios A. & Kouretas, Georgios P., 2015. "The conduct of monetary policy in the Eurozone before and after the financial crisis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 83-92.
    13. Goran Petrevski, 2023. "Macroeconomic Effects of Inflation Targeting: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," Papers 2305.17474, arXiv.org.
    14. Petrevski, Goran, 2023. "Macroeconomic Effects of Inflation Targeting: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," EconStor Preprints 271122, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    15. Creel, Jérôme & Hubert, Paul, 2012. "Constrained discretion in Sweden," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 33-44.
    16. Ardakani Omid M. & Kishor N. Kundan, 2018. "Examining the success of the central banks in inflation targeting countries: the dynamics of the inflation gap and institutional characteristics," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 1-19, February.
    17. Jérôme Creel & Paul Hubert, 2008. "Has the Adoption of Inflation Targeting Represented a Regime Switch? Empirical evidence from Canada, Sweden and the UK," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01064264, HAL.
    18. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/6150 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Ardakani, Omid M. & Kishor, N. Kundan & Song, Suyong, 2018. "Re-evaluating the effectiveness of inflation targeting," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 76-97.
    20. Gnabo, Jean-Yves & Moccero, Diego Nicolas, 2015. "Risk management, nonlinearity and aggressiveness in monetary policy: The case of the US Fed," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 281-294.
    21. Baxa, Jaromír & Horváth, Roman & Vašíček, Bořek, 2014. "How Does Monetary Policy Change? Evidence On Inflation-Targeting Countries," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 593-630, April.
    22. Cruz, Christopher John, 2022. "Reduced macroeconomic volatility after adoption of inflation targeting: Impulses or propagation?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 759-770.
    23. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/9543 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6150 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/9543 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Ardakani, Omid & Kishor, Kundan & Song, Suyong, 2015. "On the Effectiveness of Inflation Targeting: Evidence from a Semiparametric Approach," MPRA Paper 75091, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    27. Geoffrey R. Dunbar & Amy (Qijia) Li, 2019. "The Effects of Inflation Targeting for Financial Development," Staff Analytical Notes 2019-21, Bank of Canada.
    28. Arestis, Philip & Chortareas, Georgios & Magkonis, Georgios & Moschos, Demetrios, 2014. "Inflation targeting and inflation convergence: International evidence," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 285-295.
    29. Davide Debortoli & Ricardo Nunes, 2014. "Monetary Regime Switches and Central Bank Preferences," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 46(8), pages 1591-1626, December.
    30. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-099 is not listed on IDEAS
    31. Ftiti, Zied & Hichri, Walid, 2014. "The price stability under inflation targeting regime: An analysis with a new intermediate approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 23-32.

    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:hal:spmain:hal-03429880. 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: Contact - Sciences Po Departement of Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.