Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-lvtdw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-22T18:21:52.193Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Monetary Policy Under Labour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Timothy Besley*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics
Kevin Sheedy
Affiliation:
London School of Economics

Abstract

This paper analyses Labour's record on monetary policy and the record of the MPC which it created. The paper begins by discussing the conceptual framework and institutions behind inflation targeting as it operates in the UK. We then discuss the successes that it enjoyed up to 2007 and debate the lessons that are being learned as a consequence of the experience since then. We then raise some of the formidable challenges that UK monetary policy must now face up to including maintaining the credibility of the inflation targeting regime in the face of greater interdependence between monetary and fiscal policy, and between monetary policy and support to the banking system and financial markets.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors would like to thank Paul Tucker and Martin Weale for helpful comments on an earlier draft and Gianni La Cava for research assistance.

References

Bank of England, Who sets our interest rates? available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/other/monetary/inside_mpc.pdf.Google Scholar
Bean, C.R. (1998), ‘The new UK monetary arrangements: a view from the literature’, Economic Journal, 108(451), pp. 1795- 1809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bean, C.R. (2009), ‘Quantitative easing: an interim report’, available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2009/speech405.pdf.Google Scholar
Bernanke, B. (2004), ‘The Great Moderation’, remarks at the Eastern Economic Association, Washington, DC, 20 February.Google Scholar
Bernanke, B., Laubach, T., Mishkin, F. and Posen, A. (1997), Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience, Princeton,Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bernanke, B. and Woodford, M. (2005), The Inflation Targeting Debate, NBER, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Blanchard, O., Dell'Ariccia, G. and Mauro, P. (2010), ‘Rethinking macroeconomic policy’, available at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/spn/2010/spn1003.pdf.Google Scholar
Fenwick, D. and Roe, D. (2004), ‘The new inflation target: the statistical perspective’, Office for National Statistics, Economic Trends no. 602- http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/economic_trends/ET602Roe.pdf.Google Scholar
King, M. (2002), ‘The inflation target ten years on’, available at 10http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2002/speech181.pdf.Google Scholar
King, M. (2007), ‘The MPC ten years on’, available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2007/speech309.pdf.Google Scholar
Meier, A. (2009), ‘Panacea, curse, or nonevent? Unconventional monetary policy in the United Kingdom’, IMF working paper 09/163 (August) - http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imf/imfwp/2009/00009163/00000200/art00001.Google Scholar
Rogoff, K. (1985), ‘The optimal degree of commitment to an intermediate monetary target’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 100(4), pp. 1169–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargent, T. (2010), ‘Uncertainty and ambiguity in American fiscal and monetary policies’, A.W. Phillips Lecture, LSE.Google Scholar
Tucker, P. (2009), ‘The debate on the financial system resilience: macroprudential instruments’, available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/speeches/2009/speech407.pdf.Google Scholar