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Monetary Policy Transparency:Lessons from Germany and the Eurozone

Author

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  • Iris Biefang-Frisancho Mariscal

    (School of Economics, University of the West of England)

  • Peter Howells

    (School of Economics, University of the West of England)

Abstract

The conduct of monetary policy emphasises institutional arrangements which make monetary policy decision-making more ‘transparent’. Judged by these institutional features neither the Bundesbank, nor the ECB, score very highly. We test for (i) agents’ average ability to anticipate policy rate changes under the Bundesbank and the ECB and (ii) and agents’ forecasting unanimity of money market rates. Rising forecasting uncertainty may either be due to a lack of ECB transparency or to larger inflation and growth forecasting errors. Our results indicate that inflation forecast spreads widened amongst private agents and that inflation forecasting uncertainty increased the forecasting spread of money market rates

Suggested Citation

  • Iris Biefang-Frisancho Mariscal & Peter Howells, 2004. "Monetary Policy Transparency:Lessons from Germany and the Eurozone," Working Papers 0410, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0410
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi & Daniel Gros, 2000. "Open Issues in European Central Banking," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-333-98188-7, October.
    2. Andrew G Haldane & Vicky Read, 2000. "Monetary policy surprises and the yield curve," Bank of England working papers 106, Bank of England.
    3. Mr. Kevin Ross, 2002. "Market Predictability of ECB Policy Decisions: A Comparative Examination," IMF Working Papers 2002/233, International Monetary Fund.
    4. Hardy, Daniel C., 1996. "Market reaction to changes in German official interest rates," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 1996,04, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    5. Kuttner, Kenneth N., 2001. "Monetary policy surprises and interest rates: Evidence from the Fed funds futures market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 523-544, June.
    6. Pérez Quirós, Gabriel & Sicilia, Jorge, 2002. "Is the European Central Bank (and the United States Federal Reserve) predictable?," Working Paper Series 192, European Central Bank.
    7. Alesina, Alberto & Summers, Lawrence H, 1993. "Central Bank Independence and Macroeconomic Performance: Some Comparative Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 151-162, May.
    8. William Poole & Robert H. Rasche & Daniel L. Thornton, 2002. "Market anticipations of monetary policy actions," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 84(Jul), pages 65-94.
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    Cited by:

    1. Menno Middeldorp, 2011. "Central bank transparency, the accuracy of professional forecasts, and interest rate volatility," Staff Reports 496, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Tomáš Holinka, 2010. "Proces učení a transparentnost centrální banky [Learning Process and Transparency of Central Bank]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2010(4), pages 458-470.
    3. Goodhart, Charles, 2015. "The interest rate conditioning assumption," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24666, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    transparency; yield curve; forecasting uncertainty; Bundesbank; ECB;
    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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