Lars E O Svensson's picture
Affiliation: 
Stockholm School of Economics
Credentials: 
Professor of Economics

Voting history

Should the ECB Reformulate its Inflation Objective?

Question 3: Which of the following best reflects your opinion on the following statement? “The ECB should explicitly recognize unemployment and/or economic growth as a secondary aim, secondary to its price stability mandate.”

Answer:
Agree
Confidence level:
Very confident
Comment:
More precisely, I would prefer to formulate the objective of ECB’s monetary policy as “price stability and full employment without prejudice to the price-stability objective,” where “without prejudice...” is clarified to mean that average inflation over a period such as 4-5 years shall be close to a symmetric inflation target of 2%. As argued in section 2.1 of a paper in the Vitor Constancio Festschrift, https://larseosvensson.se/files/papers/the-future-of-monetary-policy-and-macroprudential-policy.pdf , this is fully consistent with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 127(1), as well as with clarifications of the objective on the ECB's website.

Question 2: Would you support increasing the ECB’s inflation target to a higher rate of inflation than the current 2% target?

Answer:
Oppose
Confidence level:
Confident
Comment:
First move to an average inflation target of 2%, to see how this works.

Question 1: Which of the following best reflects your opinion on the following statement? “The ECB should explicitly state that it will allow inflation to temporarily exceed the 2% target following extended periods of low inflation.”

Answer:
Strongly agree
Confidence level:
Extremely confident
Comment:
The ECB should have a symmetric inflation target of 2% and, in particular, keep average inflation over a few years (for example, 4-5 years) close to the target.

Global risks from rising debt and asset prices

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Question 2: Is the loose monetary policy of major central banks responsible for the recent increase in global leverage or asset values?

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Answer:
Strongly disagree
Confidence level:
Very confident

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Question 1: Does the world economy face heightened risks arising from an excess of public and private debt and/or inflated asset prices?

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Answer:
Disagree
Confidence level:
Confident

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