Central bank transparency has become one of the key features of monetary policy recently.
This survey article provides a structured review of the theoretical literature on the …

This chapter begins with a number of important preliminary issues including the distinction
between rules and discretion in monetary policy; the feasibility of committed rule-like …

The 20th anniversary of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) offers an opportunity to look
back on the ECB's record and learn lessons that can improve the conduct of policy in the …

What determines the size and form of redistributive programs, the extent and type of public
goods provision, the burden of taxation across alternative tax bases, the size of government …

The new edition of a comprehensive treatment of monetary economics, including the first
extensive coverage of the effective lower bound on nominal interest rates. This textbook …

In recent years, a number of industrialized countries have adopted a strategy for monetary
policy known as 'inflation targeting.'The authors describe how this approach has been …

Inflation targeting is shown to imply inflation forecast targeting: the central bank's inflation
forecast becomes an explicit intermediate target. Inflation forecast targeting simplifies both …

The relationship between political and economic cycles is one of the most widely studied
topics in political economics. This book examines how electoral laws, the timing of elections …

We propose a clarification of the notion of a soft budget constraint, a concept widely used in
the analysis of socialist, transitional, and market economies. Our interpretation is broad …

Alan S. Blinder offers the dual perspective of a leading academic macroeconomist who
served a stint as Vice-Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board—one who practiced what he …