Inflation targeting and firm performance in developing countries

We examine the impact of inflation targeting on manufacturing firm performance in developing countries. Using a panel of 31,027 firms in 47 countries from 2006 to 2020 and applying the entropy balancing method to mitigate selection issues, we find that inflation targeting significantly increases firm growth and productivity. The findings are economically significant and robust to various checks. Moreover, we provide evidence that our results are not biased towards unobservables nor are they confounded with the effects induced by other reforms, such as IMF programs. We further show that economic and institutional factors such as the quality of judicial processes, fiscal discipline, central bank deviations from the target, and the time length since the policy adoption also influence the link between the monetary regime and firm performance. Last, we explore the main transmission channels and identify macroeconomic stability as the key driver of the regime's effectiveness.