Overview
How should central banks view movements in equity, housing and foreign exchange markets? Can policy-makers improve economic performance by paying attention to asset prices, as well as inflation and output forecasts? Is it possible to identify asset price misalignments and bubbles? Is it possible to use non-conventional policies to address asset price misalignments? Should asset prices be included directly in measures of inflation? Do asset prices contain information about future consumer price inflation? The second title in the ICMB/CEPR series of Geneva Reports on the World Economy addresses these questions and reaches the following conclusions: 1. A central bank concerned with stabilizing inflation can achieve superior performance by adjusting its policy instruments in response to asset prices as well as inflation forecasts and the output gap. The reaction to asset prices will, however, depend on why they have changed: appropriate responses to increases in productivity growth are very different from responses to misalignments or bubbles. 2. Asset price misalignments may be difficult to measure, but this is no reason to ignore them. 3. Most non-conventional policies, such as adjusting margin requirements, are unlikely to succeed in reducing asset price volatility. 4. Inflation measures should take better account of changes in housing prices, but stock price movements are better left out of inflation indices. 5. Asset prices have a strong effect on future inflation, although the impact differs across countries.
Full Product Details
Author: Steven G. Cecchetti ,
Hans Genberg ,
Sushil B. Wadhwani ,
John Lipsky
Publisher: Centre for Economic Policy Research
Imprint: Centre for Economic Policy Research
Volume: No. 2
Dimensions:
Width: 17.10cm
, Height: 0.90cm
, Length: 24.80cm
Weight: 0.333kg
ISBN: 9781898128533
ISBN 10: 1898128537
Pages: 140
Publication Date: 30 August 2000
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Author Information
Stephen G. Cecchetti is the Economic Adviser and the Head of the Monetary and Economic Department at the Bank for International Settlements. Hans Genberg is the executive director of research at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. John Lipsky was First Deputy Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund. Prior to joining the IMF, he was Vice Chairman of the JPMorgan Investment Bank. Sushil Wadhwani was a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee from June 1999 to May 2002. He is also the founder and chief executive officer of Wadhwani Asset Management.
