Four Monetary Policy Strategies in Comparison: How to Deal with Financial Instability?

Jesus Crespo Cuaresma and Ernest Gnan ()
Additional contact information
Ernest Gnan: Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Economic Analysis Division, http://www.oenb.at

Monetary Policy & the Economy, 2008, issue 3, 65–102

Abstract: The article provides a review of the monetary policy strategies of four major central banks – the Eurosystem, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England – and investigates whether these strategies are modified in times of financial instability. The study finds a number of – statutory and actual – differences regarding the central banks’ objective(s), strategies and approaches to achieve the objective(s), and communication, including the publication of forecasts. While central bank laws are often not very explicit about financial stability, there is consensus that the latter is a major concern in practice. Many see the 2007/2008 financial crisis as yet another reminder that central banks in their monetary policy strategies need to take a longer-term and broader view than might have been suggested only a few years ago. All four central banks’ monetary policy strategies in principle allow for adequate incorporation of financial stability concerns. The lender of last resort function poses challenges for the operational implementation of monetary policy and their credibility as competent and reliable policy institutions. While central banks have been praised for their flexibility in dealing with the recent crisis, this very flexibility may also create moral hazard for the future. Empirical estimates of Taylor-type reaction functions, augmented for a measure of financial instability, confirm some relevant differences in the reaction elasticities to inflation and the output gap, as well as significant effects of financial instability on the interest rate setting behavior of the Bank of England, which are in line with the theoretical view that less inertia in monetary policy should be allowed for in times of financial market risks.

Keywords: central bank; monetary policy; financial stability; monetary policy strategy; Taylor rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E52 E58 E63 G18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.oenb.at/dam/jcr:9217f663-0a7c-4a71-a97 ... gnan_tcm16-92369.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:onb:oenbmp:y:2008:i:3:b:4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Documentation Management and Communications Services, Otto-Wagner Platz 3, A-1090 Vienna, Austria

Access Statistics for this article

Monetary Policy & the Economy is currently edited by Gerhard Fenz and Maria Teresa Valderrama

More articles in Monetary Policy & the Economy from Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank) P.O. Box 61, A-1011 Vienna, Austria. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rita Glaser-Schwarz ().