A monetary economy comprises a vast array of market-clearing interest rates. Central banks exert a direct influence over only a narrow subset of these rates: the rate at which they supply marginal funds to the commercial banking system. Accordingly, the market interest rates which impinge upon...

The monetary transmission mechanism describes the channels through which changes in monetary policy affect the policy target, price inflation. Understanding the transmission mechanism is thus central to the successful conduct of monetary policy. This paper uses a Vector AutoRegressive (VAR)...

It is widely accepted that a central bank, such as the Bank of England, has the ability to control very short-term interest rates. Moreover, a number of studies have documented the very close relationship between Bank-administered rates (notably the Band 1 stop rate) and their market analogues....

The UK is due to move to a system of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) later this year. Although the decision to move to RTGS was based on prudential concerns, this paper considers whether it has any implications for the implementation of monetary policy. In particular, the move could, in...

Why have central banks become more accountable and transparent in recent years? This paper considers a set of analytical models of monetary policy institutions to shed light on this. One conclusion it reaches is that uncertainty - regarding the central bank's inflation preferences or about the...

It has recently been suggested by Robert Lucas that `shoe-leather' costs of inflation may amount to as much as 1% of GNP in the United States. This paper assesses the UK evidence for the period 1970-1994. Similar estimates to those of Lucas are found using his original specification, but a...

This paper quantifies some of the costs of inflation in the United Kingdom. It focuses in particular on inflation distortions under an imperfectly indexed tax system and distortions to money demand. In the United States, an earlier study by Feldstein found that lowering inflation by 2 percentage...

This paper discusses some of the operational issues relevant to the implementation of an inflation-targeting regime. In particular it focuses on: whether inflation targeting is 'new'; whether (and how) the forward-looking nature of inflation-targeting helps to prevent instabilities in inflation;...

Much of the information communicated by central banks is noisy or imperfect. This paper considers the potential benefits and limitations of central bank communications in a model of imperfect knowledge and learning. It is shown that the value of communicating imperfect information is ambiguous....

Much of the information communicated by central banks is noisy or imperfect. This paper considers the potential benefits and limitations of central bank communications in a model of imperfect knowledge and learning. It is shown that the value of communicating imperfect information is ambiguous....