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Monetary Policy Transparency in the UK: The Impact of Independence and Inflation Targeting

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  • Iris Biefang-Frisancho Mariscal
  • Peter Howells

Abstract

There is a widespread belief that the transparency of UK monetary policy has increased substantially as a result of the introduction of inflation targeting in 1992 and a number of procedural and institutional reforms which accompanied and followed it. Here, money market responses (and other data) are used to test the possibility that improved anticipation of policy moves may be the result of developments other than the institutional reforms popularly cited. We find overwhelming evidence that the switch to inflation targeting itself significantly reduced monetary policy surprises, while subsequent reforms have contributed little. Where we advance substantially on earlier work is to look at the cross-sectional dispersion of agents' anticipation. If the benefit of transparency is the elimination of policy surprise, there is little benefit if the averagely correct anticipations of agents conceal a wide dispersion of view.

Suggested Citation

  • Iris Biefang-Frisancho Mariscal & Peter Howells, 2007. "Monetary Policy Transparency in the UK: The Impact of Independence and Inflation Targeting," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(5), pages 603-617.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:irapec:v:21:y:2007:i:5:p:603-617
    DOI: 10.1080/02692170701525966
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    Cited by:

    1. Eijffinger, Sylvester & van der Cruijsen, Carin, 2007. "The Economic Impact of Central Bank Transparency: A Survey," CEPR Discussion Papers 6070, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Menno Middeldorp, 2011. "Central bank transparency, the accuracy of professional forecasts, and interest rate volatility," Staff Reports 496, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    3. van der Cruijsen, C.A.B., 2008. "The economic impact of central bank transparency," Other publications TiSEM 86c1ba91-1952-45b4-adac-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    4. Osborne, Matthew, 2016. "Monetary policy and volatility in the sterling money market," Bank of England working papers 588, Bank of England.
    5. Papadamou, Stephanos, 2013. "Market anticipation of monetary policy actions and interest rate transmission to US Treasury market rates," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 545-551.
    6. Kia, Amir, 2017. "Monetary policy transparency in a forward-looking market: Evidence from the United States," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 597-617.
    7. Ruttachai Seelajaroen & Pornanong Budsaratragoon & Boonlert Jitmaneeroj, 2020. "Do monetary policy transparency and central bank communication reduce interest rate disagreement?," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 368-393, April.
    8. Amir Kia, 2011. "Developing a Market-Based Monetary Policy Transparency Index: Evidence from the United States," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 16(2), pages 53-80, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Monetary policy; central banks; independence; transparency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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