The development of monetary policy in the 20th century – some reflections

Otmar Issing ()
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Otmar Issing: Center for Financial Studies, Frankfurt am Main

No 186, Working Paper Research from National Bank of Belgium

Abstract: In this paper I outline – from a practitioner’s as well as from a researcher’s perspective – several of the key developments that took place during the last century in monetary policy. In particular, I describe how the monetary system evolved from gold standard, prevailing throughout most of the last century, to paper money and how the norm in central banking changed from pure discretion after World War II to transparency and independence. I furthermore analyze how the exchange rate regime under Bretton-Woods impacted on countries’ monetary policy and, with a focus on Europe, how European Monetary Union (EMU) emerged from the European Monetary System (EMS). I then outline today’s relatively broad consensus on monetary policy and how it developed from a learning process on the side of central banks and important contributions from research. Finally, after arguing that the ECB’s monetary policy which fruitfully combines past experience and current research is a successful and promising approach, I outline some challenges lying ahead

Keywords: monetary policy; monetary system; European Monetary Union; ECB (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 B22 E42 E58 F33 N10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mon
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201004-01

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