Wicksell at the Bank of Canada

Kevin Clinton

No 1087, Working Papers from Queen's University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Wicksell, writing around the start of the 20th century, outlined an approach to monetary policy strikingly similar to the modern approach, of which the Bank of Canada has been a pioneer. Its features include: the overriding objective of price stability (or low inflation); an interest rate instrument controlled by the rates on settlement balances at the central bank; and a policy rule under which the instrument varies in response to deviations from the objective. Wicksell’s natural rate of interest has resurfaced as the neutral rate in mainstream macroeconomic models; and his description of the inflation process has parallels in the modern Phillips curve. Moreover, in a mandate for price stability, one can find a logical basis for the independence and accountability of central banks. The paper tries to explain why Wicksell’s ideas fell by the wayside for a century, and describes how the Bank of Canada, by pragmatic steps in the 1990s, helped reinvent Wicksell, and install a neo-Wicksellian monetary policy.

Keywords: Wicksell; central bank; monetary policy; Bank of Canada (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E52 E58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-pke
Date: 2006-06
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:qed:wpaper:1087

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