 The New UK Monetary Arrangements: A View from the LiteratureEconomic Journal, 1998, vol. 108, issue 451, 1795-1809 Abstract: This paper considers the likely operating characteristics of the new UK monetary arrangements introduced in May 1997. The paper first argues that the time inconsistency of policy is not an issue provided the Bank of England is properly independent. However, the current inflation remit from the Chancellor to the Bank specifies a numerical target for the inflation rate, but does not specify how quickly deviations from the target are to be corrected. It is thus an incomplete contract, and there is a danger that the Bank may choose to stabilize inflation at the cost of excessively volatile movements in output, or vice versa. The author estimates the optimal policy frontier for the UK economy and show that in practice it is close to rectangular. Consequently all the Bank needs to assume is that the government's preferences are 'reasonable' in order to know approximately where to locate on this frontier; the incompleteness of the remit therefore need not be a cause for concern. Date: 1998 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecj:econjl:v:108:y:1998:i:451:p:1795-1809 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Economic Journal is currently edited by Martin Cripps, Steve Machin, Woulter den Haan, Andrea Galeotti, Rachel Griffith and Frederic Vermeulen More articles in Economic Journal from Royal Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC. |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.