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Average Is Good Enough: Average-Inflation Targeting and the ELB

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Amano
  • Stefano Gnocchi
  • Sylvain Leduc
  • Joel Wagner

Abstract

The Great Recession and current pandemic have focused attention on the constraint on nominal interest rates from the effective lower bound. This has renewed interest in monetary policies that embed makeup strategies, such as price-level or average-inflation targeting. This paper examines the properties of average-inflation targeting in a two-agent New Keynesian (TANK) model in which a fraction of firms have adaptive expectations. We examine the optimal degree of history dependence under average-inflation targeting and find it to be relatively short for business cycle shocks of standard magnitude and duration. In this case, we show that the properties of the economy are quantitatively similar to those under a price-level target.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Amano & Stefano Gnocchi & Sylvain Leduc & Joel Wagner, 2020. "Average Is Good Enough: Average-Inflation Targeting and the ELB," Working Paper Series 2020-21, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:88289
    DOI: 10.24148/wp2020-21
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Nessen, Marianne & Vestin, David, 2005. "Average Inflation Targeting," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(5), pages 837-863, October.
    7. Ben S. Bernanke & Michael T. Kiley & John M. Roberts, 2019. "Monetary Policy Strategies for a Low-Rate Environment," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 109, pages 421-426, May.
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    9. Bilbiie, Florin, 2018. "Monetary Policy and Heterogeneity: An Analytical Framework," CEPR Discussion Papers 12601, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
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    11. Thomas M. Mertens & John C. Williams, 2019. "Tying Down the Anchor: Monetary Policy Rules and the Lower Bound on Interest Rates," Working Paper Series 2019-14, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cars Hommes & Mario He & Sebastian Poledna & Melissa Siqueira & Yang Zhang, 2022. "CANVAS: A Canadian Behavioral Agent-Based Model," Staff Working Papers 22-51, Bank of Canada.
    2. Coenen, Günter & Montes-Galdón, Carlos & Schmidt, Sebastian, 2021. "Macroeconomic stabilisation and monetary policy effectiveness in a low-interest-rate environment," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    3. Mazelis, Falk & Motto, Roberto & Ristiniemi, Annukka, 2023. "Monetary policy strategies for the euro area: optimal rules in the presence of the ELB," Working Paper Series 2797, European Central Bank.
    4. Chengcheng Jia & Jing Cynthia Wu, 2021. "Average Inflation Targeting: Time Inconsistency And Intentional Ambiguity," Working Papers 21-19R, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 01 Feb 2022.
    5. Jia, Chengcheng & Wu, Jing Cynthia, 2023. "Average inflation targeting: Time inconsistency and ambiguous communication," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 69-86.
    6. Masek, Frantisek & Zemlicka, Jan, 2024. "Average inflation targeting: how far to look into the past and the future?," Working Paper Series 2955, European Central Bank.
    7. Hoffmann, Mathias & Moench, Emanuel & Pavlova, Lora & Schultefrankenfeld, Guido, 2022. "Would households understand average inflation targeting?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(S), pages 52-66.
    8. Brent Bundick & Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, 2021. "From Deviations to Shortfalls: The Effects of the FOMC’s New Employment Objective," Research Working Paper RWP 21-04, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    9. José Dorich & Rhys R. Mendes & Yang Zhang, 2021. "The Bank of Canada’s “Horse Race” of Alternative Monetary Policy Frameworks: Some Interim Results from Model Simulations," Discussion Papers 2021-13, Bank of Canada.
    10. Mota, Paulo R. & Fernandes, Abel L.C., 2022. "Is the ECB already following albeit implicitly an average inflation targeting strategy?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 149-162.
    11. Busetti, Fabio & Neri, Stefano & Notarpietro, Alessandro & Pisani, Massimiliano, 2021. "Monetary policy strategies in the New Normal: A model-based analysis for the euro area," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    12. Eo, Yunjong & McClung, Nigel, 2021. "Determinacy and E-stability with interest rate rules at the zero lower bound," Research Discussion Papers 14/2021, Bank of Finland.
    13. Salle, Isabelle L., 2023. "What to target? Insights from a lab experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 514-533.
    14. Wagner, Joel & Schlanger, Tudor & Zhang, Yang, 2023. "A horse race of alternative monetary policy regimes under bounded rationality," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2021_014 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Olena Kostyshyna & Luba Petersen & Jing Yang, 2022. "A Horse Race of Monetary Policy Regimes: An Experimental Investigation," Staff Working Papers 22-33, Bank of Canada.
    17. Edouard Djeutem & Mario He & Abeer Reza & Yang Zhang, 2022. "Household Heterogeneity and the Performance of Monetary Policy Frameworks," Staff Working Papers 22-12, Bank of Canada.
    18. Zheng Liu & Jianjun Miao & Dongling Su, 2022. "Fiscal Stimulus Under Average Inflation Targeting," Working Paper Series 2022-22, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    19. Herzog, Bodo, 2023. "How credible is average and symmetric inflation targeting in an episode of high inflation?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1750-1761.
    20. Darracq Pariès, Matthieu & Notarpietro, Alessandro & Kilponen, Juha & Papadopoulou, Niki & Zimic, Srečko & Aldama, Pierre & Langenus, Geert & Alvarez, Luis Julian & Lemoine, Matthieu & Angelini, Elena, 2021. "Review of macroeconomic modelling in the Eurosystem: current practices and scope for improvement," Occasional Paper Series 267, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ELB; make-up strategies; inflation targeting; price level targeting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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