Central Bank Communication and Multiple Equilibria

Kozo Ueda

International Journal of Central Banking, 2010, vol. 6, issue 3, 145-167

Abstract: In this paper, we construct a simple model for communication between a central bank and money-market traders. It is demonstrated that there are multiple equilibria. In one equilibrium, traders truthfully reveal their own information, and by learning this, the central bank can make better forecasts. Another equilibrium is a “dog-chasing-its-tail” equilibrium described by Blinder (1998). Traders mimic the central bank’s forecast, so the central bank simply observes its own forecast from traders. The latter equilibrium is socially worse, as inflation variability becomes larger. As policy implications, we find that too-high transparency of central banks is bad because it yields the “dog-chasing-its-tail” equilibrium, and central banks should conduct continuous monitoring or emphasize that their forecasts are conditional because doing so eliminates the “dog-chasing-its-tail” equilibrium. We also consider the possibility of the existence of an optimal degree of transparency.

JEL-codes: C72 D83 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb10q3a5.pdf (application/pdf)
http://www.ijcb.org/journal/ijcb10q3a5.htm (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: Central Bank Communication and Multiple Equilibria (2009)
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:ijc:ijcjou:y:2010:q:3:a:5

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Central Banking is currently edited by Loretta J. Mester

More articles in International Journal of Central Banking from International Journal of Central Banking
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bank for International Settlements ().