Monetary Policy in a Post-Crisis World: Experiences and Practices

In this special volume, we gave special attention to new trends in the monetary policy practice around the world. Particularly after the Subprime crisis (2008-2009), conventional monetary policy, based solely on basic interest rate adjustments, became unable to deal with problems relating economic activity, inflation, strong capital mobility, exchange rate fluctuations, public’s expectations, and asset prices volatility, among other related aspects. Since then, monetary policy has been seen as a more general strategy pursued by central banks, remarkably dependent on reputation and credibility building over time. Economic models which are conceived to analyze such a new trend in monetary policy, as well as its macroeconomic implications, present some characteristics that are not so new: rational expectations, prices and inflation rigidities in short-term and a long-term economic process in which potential output and natural unemployment levels are not correlated with the monetary policy path. Are such assumptions still plausible? Are them corroborated by empirical evidences in a robust manner? These are open questions and certainly will lead economic research in the current century. In this special volume we present a relevant sample of theoretical and empirical papers that aimed to find meaning and answers for monetary policy questions which naturally emerge in this New Global World.