Table of Contents

List of FiguresPrefacePt. 1Inflation Targeting: The Issues11Introduction32The Rationale for Inflation Targeting103Issues of Design and Implementation26Pt. 2Case Studies and Empirical Evidence394German and Swiss Monetary Targeting: Precursors to Inflation Targeting415New Zealand: Inflation-Targeting Pioneer866Canada: Inflation Targets as Tools of Communication1157United Kingdom: The Central Bank as Counterinflationary Conscience1458Sweden: Searching for a Nominal Anchor1729Three Small Open Economies: Israel, Australia, and Spain20310Inflation Targeting: How Successful Has It Been?252Pt. 3Conclusions28511What Have We Learned?28712Inflation Targeting for the United States and the European Monetary Union309Notes335References355Index367

Promotional Information

The most accessible study of this important new monetary regime--accessible to a wide range of readers well beyond the ranks of professional economists. [Inflation Targeting] should, and is intended to, appeal to historians, political scientists, international-relations students, politicians, central bankers, journalists, as well as to economists and to undergraduates at any level of sophistication. -- C.A.E. Goodhart, London School of Economics and external member of the United Kingdom's Monetary Policy Committee

About the Author

Ben S. Bernanke is Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Thomas Laubach is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Frederic S. Mishkin is A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Economics at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and former Director of Research at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Adam S. Posen is Research Fellow at the Institute for International Economics.

Reviews

"Bernanke et al. provide a coherent and well-structured analysis of IT that will be essential reading for central bankers and academics interested in simply understanding IT, or contemplating an IT regime themselves. The volume is rich in detail about the individual experiences of the various inflation targeting countries."--Journal of Economics "A groundbreaking study that will be likely to have a major impact on the debate over the right monetary strategy for the coming years. As many countries currently think of adopting inflation targeting in one form or another, the arrival of this book could not be more timely."--Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Review of World Economics "This readable and well-structured examination of a relatively new approach to guiding monetary policy is a useful addition to contemporary policy analysis."--Choice