DOCSLIB.ORG

Monetary Statecraft in Follower States

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Monetary Statecraft in Follower States David Andrews, ed. International Monetary Power, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006. Monetary Statecraft in Follower States Louis W. Pauly Common sense suggests that successful leaders need willing follow- ers. Coercion can sometimes be effective, but, as every new parent soon learns, out- comes achieved through self-interested acquiescence tend to be more satisfactory and more enduring than those achieved through the application of brute force. Po- litical theorists typically focus on the concept of legitimacy when they evoke the quality that transforms the raw power of a strong actor into something more ac- ceptable to a relatively weaker one. Only when it is operative, we might even say, is the term leadership really appropriate. The authority relationship thereby invoked ultimately entails a fundamental respect for the autonomy of the follower.1 Early versions of this chapter were presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies As- sociation, March 17–20, 2004, and at the European University Institute, May 16, 2004, and released as a working paper by the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition of McMaster University (GHC 05/8, April 2005). For constructive comments and suggestions, I am grateful to Stephen Harris, Beth Simmons, Bob Hancké, William Coleman, fellow conferees, two anonymous referees, and especially to Dave Andrews. For generously sharing original empirical material on the two main cases, I am deeply indebted to Dave Andrews and to Eric Helleiner. Eduard Hochreiter opened many doors for David and me in Vienna. Georg Winckler and Aurel Schubert provided valuable assistance to me during several trips to Austria. It was a privilege to interview Louis Rasminsky in Ottawa during the final years of his long life. Financial assistance came from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and from the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. 1. Research on the meaning of power and authority in international relations is rapidly expanding. For an overview, see Edgar Grande and Louis W. Pauly, eds., Complex Sovereignty: Reconstituting Political Authority in the Twenty-First Century (Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 2005). On legitimacy and par- ticular monetary orders, see Benjamin J. Cohen, “Balance-of-Payments Financing: Evolution of a Re- gime,” in International Regimes, ed. Stephen Krasner, 315–36 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, l983); Jonathan Kirshner, ed., Monetary Orders: Ambiguous Economics, Ubiquitous Politics (Ithaca: Cornell Uni- versity Press, 2003); David Andrews, C. Randall Henning, and Louis W. Pauly, eds., Governing the World’s Money (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002). On the concepts of leadership and followership in this arena, see Rawi Abdelal, “The Politics of Monetary Leadership and Followership: Stability in the Euro- pean Monetary System since the Currency Crisis of 1992,” Political Studies 46, no. 2 (1998): 236–59. 184 CD8145. 184-208 2/17/06 10:36 AM Page 185 Monetary Statecraft in Follower States 185 In a world characterized by both intensifying economic interdependence and continuing political disunity, the quest to establish rules capable of governing mon- etary power is as difficult as it is persistent. Leading and following states in many different periods during the past century repeatedly attempted to negotiate such rules. That they needed to do so, for example in 1944 and again after 1971, suggests the enduring temptation of unbridled power on the part of leaders. That they wanted to do so suggests the capacity of followers somehow to limit the power of leaders. As I employ the term in this chapter, followership involves an observable ca- pacity for strategic choice. In this policy context, that capacity defines the contours of monetary statecraft. This chapter explores leader-follower dynamics by applying conceptions of monetary power and statecraft developed by David Andrews (chap. 1 in this volume), as well as the discussion of monetary leadership by Andrew Wal- ter (chap. 3 in this volume), to two important and illustrative empirical cases of mon- etary followership in Canada and Austria. National Policies and International Monetary Order What a follower state basically wants from a monetary leader, it might reasonably be assumed, is a reliable monetary anchor or, more precisely, in recent times an external bulwark against inflation. Despite the integrative effects of economic globalization, however, few follower states have in fact ever demonstrated a complete willingness simply to trust systemic or regional leaders to maintain macroeconomic policies consistent with their own preferences. Certainly since 1945, key follower states in the middle of the pyramid of international monetary power have always insisted on taking out insurance.2 Because these follower states feared that the leading states might force them to bear more than their fair share of the burden of adjustment to expanded trade and investment flows, collaborative institutions such as the Interna- tional Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Group of Seven promised them greater sym- metry when payments imbalances needed to be equilibrated. But follower states insisted on hedging their bets even further by retaining national control over spe- cific policy instruments, either because they believed that multilateral instruments would be too weak or because they actually hoped that asymmetries might work to their own benefit. Capital controls certainly fell into such a category, especially in the early postwar years. During the past few decades, as most follower states moved decisively to open their economies to freer capital movements, other measures were developed to compensate for the absence of effective controls. Some governments, 2. Benjamin J. Cohen hypothesizes, in The Geography of Money (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), 116–17, seven layers in the world’s currency pyramid, extending from the “top currency” (the U.S. dollar) and “patrician currencies” (the Japanese yen and German mark, now the euro) at the apex to the “permeated,” “quasi-,” and “pseudo-currencies” at the base. Roughly speaking, the universe of follower states to which my analysis is addressed comes from the remaining two layers between this base and apex; they range from Switzerland and Canada to Australia, South Korea, Austria, Malaysia, and Chile. Also see Benjamin J. Cohen, The Future of Money (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). CD8145. 184-208 2/17/06 10:36 AM Page 186 186 Louis W. Pauly for example, opted to combine capital decontrol with exchange-rate floats. Others, particularly inside the European monetary union, chose a combination of regional exchange-rate fixity and new collaborative mechanisms for managing external mon- etary relationships. Such decisions construct policy buffers between followers and leaders. The pur- poses of those buffers are to limit monetary power conceived in relational terms and to constrain the instrumental use of such power. Most clearly, to employ the con- ceptual terminology employed in earlier chapters, such buffers work mainly to counter the leader’s Power to Deflect the transitional costs of balance-of-payments adjustment, including the costs of maintaining a system designed to facilitate such adjustment. A perennial struggle among interdependent but ultimately sovereign states involves the attempted shifting of such costs on to others. Blunting the power of others to do so is equivalent to carving out a zone of autonomy in an interdepen- dent relationship. This makes willing and self-interested followership possible. In the Canadian and Austrian case histories summarized in this chapter, we see the struggle to limit monetary power, to practice monetary statecraft, up close. We also see very different policy choices being made, arguably with similar degrees of success. Beyond helping us understand how those choices constrain monetary power, a comparison of the underlying reasons for the differences between them suggests the importance of relational context. It also suggests the key role that con- tinues to be played by distinctive domestic political and social arrangements, even in a policy arena commonly depicted as ever more completely dominated by free- wheeling systemic forces. In the end, the empirical evidence presented here points to the importance of conjoining research on the varieties of contemporary capital- ism with continuing research on international monetary power and authority. More specifically, it highlights the broader significance of idiosyncratic arrangements for wage bargaining and other measures to redistribute internally the net benefits and costs of ever-deepening national involvement in external markets.3 Without attention to those idiosyncrasies, the very different exchange-rate re- gime choices of Canada and Austria represent an evident puzzle. Both countries have similarly asymmetrical, dependent economic relationships with their larger neigh- bors and leading trading and investing partners. They also have similarly compli- cated and historically fraught political relationships with those large neighbors. Prominent international political economists predict that currency politics in small, open economies will incline in the direction of exchange-rate stability.4 Despite a 3. See, for example, Fritz Scharpf, Crisis and Choice in European Social Democracy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991); Herbert Kitschelt, Peter Lange, Gary Marks, and John D. Stephens, Continu- ity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From Next Best to World Class: the People and Events That Have
    FROM NEXT BEST TO WORLD CLASS The People and Events That Have Shaped the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation 1967–2017 C. Ian Kyer FROM NEXT BEST TO WORLD CLASS CDIC—Next Best to World Class.indb 1 02/10/2017 3:08:10 PM Other Historical Books by This Author A Thirty Years’ War: The Failed Public Private Partnership that Spurred the Creation of the Toronto Transit Commission, 1891–1921 (Osgoode Society and Irwin Law, Toronto, 2015) Lawyers, Families, and Businesses: A Social History of a Bay Street Law Firm, Faskens 1863–1963 (Osgoode Society and Irwin Law, Toronto, 2013) Damaging Winds: Rumours That Salieri Murdered Mozart Swirl in the Vienna of Beethoven and Schubert (historical novel published as an ebook through the National Arts Centre and the Canadian Opera Company, 2013) The Fiercest Debate: Cecil Wright, the Benchers, and Legal Education in Ontario, 1923–1957 (Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1987) with Jerome Bickenbach CDIC—Next Best to World Class.indb 2 02/10/2017 3:08:10 PM FROM NEXT BEST TO WORLD CLASS The People and Events That Have Shaped the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation 1967–2017 C. Ian Kyer CDIC—Next Best to World Class.indb 3 02/10/2017 3:08:10 PM Next Best to World Class: The People and Events That Have Shaped the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation, 1967–2017 © Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC), 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2003 La De Annuel Rapport Rapport Annueldela 2003 Banque Ducanada
    BANK OF CANADA OF CANADA BANK ANNUAL REPORT 2003 ANNUAL REPORT BANK OF CANADA ANNUAL REPORT 2003 2003 2003 BANQUE DU CANADA DU CANADA BANQUE BANQUE DU CANADA DU BANQUE LA DE ANNUEL RAPPORT RAPPORT ANNUEL DE LA RAPPORT Bank of Canada — 234 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G9 5211 — CN ISSN 0067-3587 ISSN CN — 5211 0G9 K1A Ontario Ottawa, Street, Wellington 234 — Canada of Bank his many volunteer activities. His warm wit and generous spirit will be sorely missed. sorely be will spirit generous and wit warm His activities. volunteer many his Gerry Bouey and neither will his community to which he contributed to the very end through end very the to contributed he which to community his will neither and Bouey Gerry Those who worked with him over the course of his long and remarkable career will never forget never will career remarkable and long his of course the over him with worked who Those Achievement Award. In 1987, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. of Order the of Companion a made was he 1987, In Award. Achievement of Laws from Queen’s University. In 1983, he was presented with the Outstanding Public Service Public Outstanding the with presented was he 1983, In University. Queen’s from Laws of In 1981, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and also received an Honorary Doctor Honorary an received also and Canada of Order the of Officer an made was he 1981, In economic development and to the Bank’s growing international reputation.
    [Show full text]
  • Dalrev Vol44 Iss2 Pp165 171.Pdf (3.958Mb)
    H. H. F. Binhammer CANADA'S MONEY MUDDLE IN RETROSPECT QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE CONTROL OF MONEY are as old as the use of money as a measure and store of value and a medium of exchange. Relevant to developments in the post~war period in Canada is the controversy of the mid-nineteenth century between the so-called Banking School and the Currency School. The Banking School maintained that control over the supply of money should be left in the hands of private commercial banks. The Currency School, on the other hand, among other things, maintained that control over the money supply should be vested directly or indirectly in the hands of government. Settlement in favour of the Currency School led to the establishment of central banks, mainly under the sponsorship of govern­ ments. These banks were to provide an umbrella over the private commercial banks. In Canada, interference with the money supply by a central authority started with the Finance Act of 1914. This was followed by the establishment of the Bank of Canada in 1935, first with limited government participation and later with com~ plete government control. The degree to which the central bank should assert its influence over the economy and in particular over the private commercial banks was not questioned until the fifties. During the thirties, the war, and the immediate post-war period, the central bank, on the whole, accommodated the activities of the chartered banks without question. That is to say, the central bank, in a more or less routine fashion, assisted the chartered banks to meet the demands of business.
    [Show full text]
  • Inflation Targeting in Canada
    In‡ation Targeting in Canada: Optimal Policy or Just Being There? Peter Howitt Brown University October 2, 2006 Paper presented at the Festschrift in Honour of David Laidler, University of Western Ontario, August 18-20, 2006. Parts of the paper are drawn from my unpublished essay entitled “Learning Abnout Monetary Theory and Policy,” which bene…tted from many conversations on the subject with David Laidler and also with Joel Fried. John Crow, Chuck Freedman, Nicholas Rowe, T.K. Rymes and seminar participants at Carleton University and the Laidler Festschrift provided valu- able comments. 1 Introduction David Laidler has had the good sense not to have taken too seriously the notion that people are rational maximizers, always acting under rational expectations. One of the central themes of his work is that money is a device for economizing on the costs of processing information. People use it as a bu¤er stock that automatically absorbs unforeseen changes in income and expenses without the need for deliberation. They also use it as a unit of account, measure of value and standard of deferred payment because it is convenient to use, conventional and easily understood, even if this seems to introduce biases and ine¢ ciencies into their decision making and even if economists can think of better measures and standards.1 In this respect David stands apart from the mainstream of macroeconomics, which has been characterized over the years by what he has called an irrational passion for dispassionate rationality. But unlike many other critics of unbounded rationality, David does not put his ideas forth as an attack on free market economics.
    [Show full text]
  • The International Development Research Centre a Brief History
    The International Development Research Centre A Brief History G. Newkirk, IDRC Green, IDRC F. IDRC C. Sanger, Cover photos, IDRC: Peter Bennett Lorra Thompson Daniel Buckles Neil McKee Yves Beaulieu The International Development Research Centre A Brief History “This is an idea whose time has come.” The sentiments expressed by Maurice Strong on the creation of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in 1970 echoed those of many distinguished persons in the decades before the birth of this new Canadian entity. For some years, it had become apparent that the spectacular benefits science and technology were bringing to the rich countries were not reaching the developing world. In 1935, after taking note of the global imbalance in scientific develop- ment, eminent biologist Julian Huxley called for a truly scientific approach to the problem of development. United States President Harry Truman declared in his 1949 inaugural address that it was time to mobilize science for worldwide development. He was convinced that the technology that had worked for the devel- oped countries would provide the same benefits when transplanted to underdeveloped regions. 1 In the mid-1960s, the UN Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development observed that “Only a very small fraction of the world’s scientific and technical resources is devoted to the problems of the developing countries; the overwhelming propor- tion of the world’s intellectual capital, as well as its physical capital, is applied toward … the highly developed countries.” And in her 1966 benchmark essay, Spaceship Earth, British economist, journalist, and educator Barbara Ward (Lady Jackson) declared that “… mankind is … a single, equal and fraternal community” and that “… new technological resources, properly deployed, will conquer ancient shortage.” By the late 1960s, a climate of disillusion and distrust surrounded for- eign aid programs.
    [Show full text]
  • Canada's IMF Executive Director
    Bessma Momani Canada’s IMF executive director Abstract: This article provides empirical evidence of the autonomy and agenda- setting capabilities of Canada’s International Monetary Fund executive director in Washington, D.C., for further theoretical debate. Little is known about this position in the public service. This article seeks to assess the degree of autonomy of Canadian directors from Ottawa, the nature of the IMF’s agenda items proposed by Canada’s executive directors, and, most importantly, whether these agenda items originate from the Department of Finance and the Bank of Canada or from the directors’ office in Washington directly. The author also seeks to better understand the hiring and re- cruitment of Canada’s IMF executive directors. Sommaire : Cet article tente de fournir une e´vidence empirique sur les capacite´s d’autonomie et de choix des questions a` l’ordre du jour dont jouit l’administrateur du Fonds mone´taire international pour le Canada a` Washington, D.C., dans le but de favoriser le de´bat the´orique. Ce poste est peu connu dans la fonction publique. L’ar- ticle cherche a` e´valuer le degre´ d’autonomie des administrateurs canadiens par rapport a` Ottawa ; la nature de certaines questions a` l’ordre du jour du FMI propose´es par les administrateurs du Canada ; et, plus important encore, il cherche a` savoir si ces questions proviennent du ministe`re des Finances et de la Banque du Canada ou bien directement du bureau de l’administrateur a` Washington. L’auteur cherche e´galement a` mieux comprendre le processus d’embauche et de recrutement des ad- ministrateurs du FMI pour le Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of Monetary Policy at the Bank of Canada 1935-2000
    Gordon Thiessen: Can a bank change? The evolution of monetary policy at the Bank of Canada 1935-2000 Lecture by Gordon Thiessen, Governor of the Bank of Canada, to the Faculty of Social Science, University of Western Ontario, on 17 October 2000. * * * I would like to thank the Faculty of Social Science here at the University of Western Ontario for inviting me to deliver this lecture. The Department of Economics within the Faculty is known for its long-standing interest in monetary economics, as well as its appreciation of economic history. I thought that it would be appropriate, therefore, to combine these two elements and use this occasion to reflect upon the dramatic changes that have taken place in the theory and practice of monetary policy in Canada during the Bank of Canada’s 65-year history. Over this period, there has been a fundamental transformation in the way monetary policy is conducted in Canada and in most other industrial countries. While globalization and technological change have played an important role in this area, as in so many others, they have not, to my mind, been the principal driving force behind this transformation. Far more important has been the interaction of experience and economic theory. The puzzling and, at times disappointing, performance of the economy has often served as the catalyst for major theoretical advances and policy innovations. Although the evolutionary process set in motion by these forces has not always been smooth or painless, it has, without question, deepened our understanding of how the economy works. It has also taught us valuable lessons about how monetary policy should be conducted.
    [Show full text]
  • Comm 285COVER.Qxp
    NO. 285, MARCH 2009 C.D. Howe Institute COMMENTARY MONETARY POLICY To the Next Level: From Gold Standard to Inflation Targets – to Price Stability? William B.P. Robson In this issue... Can Canada improve on its successful monetary order based on a 2 percent inflation target when it expires in 2011? Yes – better price measures, a lower inflation or price-level target, and stronger accountability could better preserve the value of Canadians’ money. THE STUDY IN BRIEF Canada’s current monetary regime, with its 2 percent inflation target, has a record of success that sets the bar high for improvements in 2011 when it comes up for renewal. Yet the 2 percent target has key defects: the impact of 2 percent annual inflation on Canadians’ purchasing power will, by 2011, have reduced the dollar’s value by more than one-quarter since 2 percent targeting began in 1995, and the annual target means the future price level is less predictable as the forecast horizon THE AUTHOR OF lengthens. Moreover, the 2 percent regime’s success also suggests that protecting THIS ISSUE money’s purchasing power more vigorously would be easier and more rewarding than once thought. WILLIAM B.P. ROBSON is President and Chief Before assessing whether and how the current regime can be improved, this Executive Officer of the Commentary first examines the key elements of a durable monetary order. They are: C.D. Howe Institute. a unique, logical goal for monetary policy; technical power to influence monetary conditions decisively; tactical skill to use that power effectively; private expectations and behaviour that conform to the goal; democratic support and accountability; and Rigorous external review resilience in the face of foreseeable shocks.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix 3 Canadian Chronology, 1973
    Appendix 3 Canadian chronology, 1973 Events in the general chronology from 1497 to 1866 are given in the 1951 Canada Kear Boo/t pp 46-49; from 1867 to 1953 in the 1954 Canada Year Book pp 1259-1264; and annually from that year in successive edi­ tions. The following listing covers the year 1973; it should be noted that certain dates are approximate. Acknowledgment is given to the publication Canadian News Facts, Toronto, which has served as a reference in the preparation of this chronology. January Saigon, led by Ambassador Michel Gauvin. Jan. 30, Jan. 1, Prince Edward Island began celebrating its Federal Public Works Minister Jean-Eudes Dube centennial year. Jan. 4, Governor General Roland announced that expropriation for the proposed air­ Michener opened the first session of the 29th port at Pickering, near Toronto, would proceed Parliament. George Alexander Drew, 78, Premier despite objections from residents and environment of Ontario from 1943 to 1948 and Progressive Con­ groups. Jan 31, The Supreme Court of Canada servative leader of the opposition in the House of ruled that the Nishga Indians have no aboriginal Commons from 1949 to 1956, died in Guelph. Jan. claim over land in the Nass River Valley in BC, the 5, The House of Commons approved a govern­ first such court decision in Canada. ment resolution deploring US air raids on Haiphong and Hanoi, North Vietnam, and urging February the US government to abstain from ordering Feb. 1, Gerald K. Bouey appointed governor of the further raids. Jan 14, Unite-Quebec reverted to its Bank of Canada for a seven-year term, succeeding original party name of Union nationale at a national Louis Rasminsky.
    [Show full text]
  • Canada and the IMF: Trailblazer Or Prodigal Son? by Michael Bordo, Tamara Gomes, and Lawrence Schembri
    Discussion Paper/Document d’analyse 2009-1 Canada and the IMF: Trailblazer or Prodigal Son? by Michael Bordo, Tamara Gomes, and Lawrence Schembri www.bank-banque-canada.ca Bank of Canada Discussion Paper 2009-1 January 2009 Canada and the IMF: Trailblazer or Prodigal Son? by Michael Bordo,1 Tamara Gomes,2 and Lawrence Schembri3 1Department of Economics Rutgers University 2Financial Stability Department Bank of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0G9 3International Economic Analysis Department Bank of Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0G9 [email protected] Bank of Canada discussion papers are completed research studies on a wide variety of technical subjects relevant to central bank policy. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors. No responsibility for them should be attributed to the Bank of Canada. ISSN 1914-0568 © 2009 Bank of Canada Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Tam Bayoumi, Pierre Duguay, Robert Flood, John Murray, Jacques Polak, and James Powell for their encouragement and helpful comments, and Jonathan Hoddenbagh and Maggie Jim for their superb research assistance. Any errors are the responsibility of the authors. ii Abstract Canada played an important role in the postwar establishment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), yet it was also the first major member to challenge the orthodoxy of the Bretton Woods par value system by abandoning it in 1950 in favour of a floating, market-determined exchange rate. Although the IMF heavily criticized this decision, Canada’s trail-blazing experience demonstrated that a flexible exchange rate could operate in a stable and effective manner under a high degree of capital mobility.
    [Show full text]
  • Revisiting the Coyne Affair: a Singular Event That Changed the Course of Canadian Monetary History
    Economic Research Paper Revisiting the Coyne Affair: A Singular Event that Changed the Course of Canadian Monetary History Pierre L. Siklos* August 2008 * Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Jennifer Brickman and Garry Tang provided excellent research assistance. Richard Burdekin, Charles Goodhart, and David Laidler provided comments on an earlier draft. I am also grateful to Simon van Norden and Robert Rasche for their help in providing some of the real time data used in the paper. I also wish to thank Heather Ryckman and Jane Boyko of the Bank of Canada Archives for their assistance in providing documents from the Coyne era. An earlier version was presented at the International Economic History Association Conference, Helsinki, Finland.. Abstract The Coyne Affair is the greatest institutional crisis faced by the Bank of Canada in its history. The crisis took place in 1959-1961 and led to the resignation of the Governor, once he was cleared of any wrongdoing. The crisis eventually resulted in a major reform of the Bank of Canada Act. Archival and empirical evidence is used to assess the performance of monetary policy throughout the 1950s. In doing so, a real-time dataset is constructed for both Canada and the US that permit estimation of reaction functions. I find that the case against James Coyne is ‘not proven’. Pierre L. Siklos, Wilfrid Laurier University e-mail: [email protected] Home Page: www.wlu.ca/sbe/psiklos Phone: (519) 884-0710, ext. 2491 Fax: (519) 884-5922 JEL Classification Codes: N100, E52, E58, C52 Keywords: Coyne Affair, monetary policy stance, Taylor rules, real-time data.
    [Show full text]
  • A Dual Mandate 1
    MARC LAVOIE & MARIO SECCARECCIA Going Beyond the Inflation-Targeting Mantra: A Dual Mandate Going Beyond the Inflation-Targeting Going Beyond the Inflation- Targeting Mantra: A Dual Mandate Discussion by Stephen Gordon page 41 This text was written for and presented at Choosing the Right Target: Asya Kostanyan & Douglas Laxton 1 Real Options for the Bank of Canada’s Mandate Renewal, a conference held by the Max Bell School of Public Policy, September 22–25, 2020 SEPTEMBER 22–25, 2020 Choosing the Right Target: Real Options for the Bank of Canada’s Mandate Renewal A conference organized by Christopher Ragan and Stephen Gordon With the Bank of Canada’s mandate up for renewal in 2021, McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy held a four-day online conference from September 22-25, 2020. The conference was attended by over one hundred policy professionals, students, academics, and monetary policy experts who had the chance to think about, exchange, and question what monetary policy in the post-pandemic era should look like. Recordings of the conference sessions can be accessed at: https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/choosingtherighttarget Authors and discussants 1. THE CASE FOR RAISING THE BANK OF CANADA’S INFLATION TARGET: LUBA PETERSEN (Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University) with Michael Devereux (Vancouver School of Economics) 2. WHY NOT TWO PERCENT OR BELOW? AN EVALUATION OF A LOWER INFLATION TARGET FOR CANADA: THOR KOEPPL (Queen’s University) with William B.P. Robson (President and Chief Executive Officer, C.D. Howe Institute) 3. NOMINAL GDP LEVEL TARGETING: STEVE AMBLER (Professor of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal, David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy at the C.D.
    [Show full text]