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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title A pioneer of a new monetary policy? Sweden's price-level targeting of the 1930s revisited
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Tobias Straumann
  • Ulrich Woitek
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title European Review of Economic History
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 1361-4916
Volume 13
Number 02
Page Range 251 - 282
Date 2009
Abstract Text The paper re-examines Sweden’s price level targeting during the 1930s which is regarded as a precursor of today’s inflation targeting. According to conventional wisdom, the Riksbank was the first central bank to adopt price level targeting, although in practice giving priority to exchange rate stabilisation. Based on Bayesian econometric techniques and the evaluation of new archival sources, we come to the conclusion that defending a fixed exchange rate is hard to reconcile with the claim of adopting price level targeting. This finding has implications for the prevailing view of the 1930s as a decade of great policy innovations.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1017/S1361491609002494
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Additional Information Copyright: Cambridge University Press