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A happy "half way-house"? Medium term inflation targeting in New Zealand

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  • Lees, Kirdan
  • Warburton, Sam

Abstract

The 2002 Policy Targets Agreement (PTA) between the government and central bank of New Zealand asks the central bank to target inflation "over the medium term" rather than over an annual target. Delegating such a medium term objective to the central bank shifts inflation targeting towards a "halfway-house" between inflation targeting and price level targeting. We show empirically that this helps time consistent policy approximate the first-best commitment policy even when the government asks the central bank to weight output stabilisation differently to society. We estimate the New Zealand economy with a small open economy DSGE model and show that the happiest halfway house is located around a two year averaging horizon at most, which leads to mild improvements in monetary policy efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Lees, Kirdan & Warburton, Sam, 2010. "A happy "half way-house"? Medium term inflation targeting in New Zealand," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 819-839, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jimfin:v:29:y:2010:i:5:p:819-839
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medium-term Inflation targeting Monetary policy DSGE;

    JEL classification:

    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • E61 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Policy Objectives; Policy Designs and Consistency; Policy Coordination

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