CfP Deadline Date:
7 June 2019
Conference Event:
28-29 August 2019
Event Location:
Wellington, New Zealand
Keynote Speaker(s):
Dr Mary C. Daly, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Prof Jinill Kim, Korea University
Organizer(s):
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the International Monetary Fund
Inflation targeting has delivered low, stable inflation and substantial
macroeconomic stability over the last several decades (financial crisis aside). But the last ten years have proved challenging for monetary authorities. Output has been below pre-crisis trends for a sustained
period, unemployment rates have been protractedly high relative to ‘natural rates’ and inflation rates in many countries have been persistently below targeted levels. Monetary authorities have been forced to rely on unconventional policies and have kept policy rates low for a long time to stabilise economies. These policy responses have led to renewed debate about central bank mandates, accountability, and independence. Challenges to established monetary policy practice have also arisen from rapid technological change and digital currencies.
In this conference, we seek to tackle issues associated with:
- The objectives of monetary policy
- The transmission and efficacy of monetary policy
- The interface between monetary policy and labour markets, and
- The design of governance frameworks for policy decision-making.
In some countries, monetary policy objectives now place greater emphasis on labour markets. What tensions or trade-offs do such objectives create, and how should policy adapt to these changes? As noted above, price and wage inflation has been low in many countries and difficult to return to targeted levels.
Are such outcomes the result of underlying slack or have technological changes materially affected pricing behaviour? How should we measure latent variables such as ‘natural interest rates’ and the ‘natural rate of unemployment’? How have technological changes affected the monetary transmission mechanism?
And how should monetary policy be implemented if interest rates are constrained at the lower bound?
Should monetary authorities provide new digital products and retire physical currency to adapt to the zero lower bound and technological changes in payments? Lastly, what processes and institutional structures should govern monetary policy frameworks?
Further Information:
Please submit to RBNZ-IMFconference2019@rbnz.govt.nz