MONETARY POLICY UNDER INFLATION TARGETING: AN INTRODUCTION

This brief review takes stock of the recent literature on monetary policy under inflation targeting and introduces new analytical and empirical research in this field. Six key areas of previous research are reviewed: the practice and optimality of inflation targeting regime features; optimal monetary policy; uncertainty, learning, and monetary policy; transparency, communication, and accountability; asset prices and monetary policy; and economic performance under inflation targeting and in comparison to non-targeting regimes. The review suggests a significant number of open issues that are addressed in 13 new contributions presented at the 2005 Annual Conference of the Central Bank of Chile, which are summarized here.