The ECB's objective of medium-term inflation below 2 percent has been portrayed by critics as ambiguous, asymmetric, and excessively stringent. This paper attempts a comprehensive evaluation of the trade-offs for the euro area and finds that: (1) in terms of guiding inflation expectations and policymaking, the current definition has functioned much as would an inflation target centered on 1 1/2-1 3/4 percent; (2) the absence of a specific (point) target for medium-term inflation has encumbered the communication of monetary policy; and (3) a target toward the upper end of the ECB's price-stability range would seem, at least with the current membership of EMU, to strike a judicious balance between the benefits of price stability, on the one hand, and the need to assist relative price and wage adjustment across EMU and safeguard against deflation, on the other hand.

Inflation is regarded by the many as a menace that damages business and can only make life worse for households. Keeping it low depends critically on ensuring that firms and workers expect it to be low. So expectations of inflation are a key influence on national economic welfare. This collection pulls together a galaxy of world experts (including Roy Batchelor, Richard Curtin and Staffan Linden) on inflation expectations to debate different aspects of the issues involved. The main focus of the volume is on likely inflation developments. A number of factors have led practitioners and academic observers of monetary policy to place increasing emphasis recently on inflation expectations. One is the spread of inflation targeting, invented in New Zealand over 15 years ago, but now encompassing many important economies including Brazil, Canada, Israel and Great Britain. Even more significantly, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the United States Federal Bank are the leading members of another group of monetary institutions all considering or implementing moves in the same direction. A second is the large reduction in actual inflation that has been observed in most countries over the past decade or so. These considerations underscore the critical – and largely underrecognized - importance of inflation expectations. They emphasize the importance of the issues, and the great need for a volume that offers a clear, systematic treatment of them. This book, under the steely editorship of Peter Sinclair, should prove very important for policy makers and monetary economists alike.

The first twenty years of the European Central Bank offer a unique insight into how a central bank can navigate macroeconomic insecurity and crisis. This volume examines the structures and decision-making processes behind the complex measures taken by the ECB to tackle some of the toughest economic challenges in the history of modern Europe.

An essential introduction to one of the most timely and important subjects in economics International Macroeconomics presents a rigorous and theoretically elegant treatment of real-world international macroeconomic problems, incorporating the latest economic research while maintaining a microfounded, optimizing, and dynamic general equilibrium approach. This one-of-a-kind textbook introduces a basic model and applies it to fundamental questions in international economics, including the determinants of the current account in small and large economies, processes of adjustment to shocks, the determinants of the real exchange rate, the role of fixed and flexible exchange rates in models with nominal rigidities, and interactions between monetary and fiscal policy. The book confronts theoretical predictions using actual data, highlighting both the power and limits of given theories and encouraging critical thinking. Provides a rigorous and elegant treatment of fundamental questions in international macroeconomicsBrings undergraduate and master’s instruction in line with modern economic researchFollows a microfounded, optimizing, and dynamic general equilibrium approachAddresses fundamental questions in international economics, such as the role of capital controls in the presence of financial frictions and balance-of-payments crisesUses real-world data to test the predictions of theoretical modelsFeatures a wealth of exercises at the end of each chapter that challenge students to hone their theoretical skills and scrutinize the empirical relevance of modelsAccompanied by a website with lecture slides for every chapter

As one of the world's key central banks, the European Central Bank comes under intense public scrutiny. Yet, its constituency is diverse, with different national traditions of central banking and varied views about the conduct of monetary policy. The ECB acts on behalf of all the members of EMU, but belongs to no particular member state. It is accountable to the European Parliament, which has only a very recent tradition of oversight of monetary policy. For these reasons, there is a need for a regular, rigorous, non-partisan and pan-European analysis of the options facing the ECB and the policies it pursues. Monitoring the European Central Bank addresses this need. Written by a team of distinguished academic economists known internationally for their work on macroeconomics and monetary policy, MECB produces a full report and an Update each year. The full report describes the issues faced by the ECB during the preceding year; assesses the policy choices that were made; and sets out the issues likely to arise during the coming year. The Update offers a follow-up to the main report, and is written in the light of the Bank's own annual report. 'Duisenberg record' and the recent review by the ECB of its monetary policy strategy. It finds that the ECB has failed to achieve its stated key objective of avoiding inflation in excess of 2 per cent. Tough rhetoric without delivery has been a strategic mistake. Actual inflation appears to be adrift due to inattentive policy. This could lead to a dangerous and costly-to-correct climb in the inflation rates, unless sufficient attention is paid soon to this issue by the ECB. The ECB should have used its review of the monetary policy strategy to admit this failure and to adjust its inflation target range upwards, bringing words in line with actual policy. It did not, and stresses continuity instead. Money still continues to play too prominent a role in the ECB's stated strategy. The report examines several of the arguments often given for a prominent role of money, and finds none of them convincing. Inflation at present and in the future should be the central focus of the ECB's analysis, not money growth rates. Deflation is a risk that is always present when inflation is low. The ECB should admit this rather than avoi

David Howarth and Peter Loedel provide a theoretically inspired account of the creation, design and operation of the European Central Bank. Issues explored include the theoretical approaches to the ECB, the antecedents of European monetary authority, the different national perspectives on central bank independence, the complex organisation of the bank, the issues of accountability and the difficult first years of the ECB in operation.