What tools are available for setting and analyzing monetary policy?

World-renowned contributors examine recent evidence on subjects as varied as price-setting, inflation persistence, the private sector's formation of inflation expectations, and the monetary policy transmission mechanism. Stopping short of advocating conclusions about the ideal conduct of policy, the authors focus instead on analytical methods and the changing interactions among the ingredients and properties that inform monetary models. The influences between economic performance and monetary policy regimes can be both grand and muted, and this volume clarifies the present state of this continually evolving relationship.
Explores themodels and practices used in formulating and transmitting monetary policiesRaises new questions about the volume, price, and availability of credit in the 2007-2010 downturnQuestions fiscal-monetary connnections and encourages new thinking about the business cycle itselfObserves changes in the formulation of monetary policies over the last 25 years"

Due to the fundamental two-way interaction between the theoretical and the empirical aspects of monetary economics, together with the relationship of both to matters of public policy, any organization of material comprehensively spanning the subject is bound to be arbitrary. The 23 surveys commissioned for this Handbook have been arranged in a way that the editors feel reflects some of the most important logical divisions within the field and together they present a comprehensive account of the current state of the art. The Handbook is an indispensable reference work which should be part of every professional collection, and which makes ideal supplementary reading for graduate economics students on advanced courses.

For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http: //www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes

From the author of "Day of Reckoning," the acclaimed critique of Ronald Reagan's economic policy ("Every citizen should read it," said "The New York Times"): a persuasive, wide-ranging argument that economic growth provides far more than material benefits.
In clear-cut prose, Benjamin M. Friedman examines the political and social histories of the large Western democracies-particularly of the United States since the Civil War-to demonstrate the fact that incomes on the rise lead to more open and democratic societies. He explains that "growth, " rather than simply a high standard of living, is key to effecting political and social liberalization in the third world, and shows that even the wealthiest of nations puts its democratic values at risk when income levels stand still. Merely being rich is no protection against a turn toward rigidity and intolerance when a country's citizens lose the sense that they are getting ahead.
With concrete policy suggestions for pursuing growth at home and promoting worldwide economic expansion, this volume is a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the effects of economic growth and globalization.

What are the goals ofmonetary policy and how are they transmitted?

Top scholars summarize recent evidence on the roles of money in the economy, the effects ofinformation, and the growing importance of nonbank financial institutions. Their investigations lead to questions about standard presumptions about the rationality of asset markets and renewed interest in fiscal-monetary connections. Stopping short of advocating conclusions about the ideal conduct of policy, the authors focus instead on analytical methods and the changing interactions among the ingredients and properties that inform monetary models. The influences between economic performance and monetary policy regimes can be both grand and muted, and this volume clarifies the present state of this continually evolving relationship.
Presents extensive coverage of monetary policy theories with an eye toward questions raised by the recent financial crisis Explores the ingredients, properties, and implications of models that inform monetary policy Observes changes in the formulation of monetary policies over the last 25 years "

Two top economists outline distinctive approaches to post-crisis financial reform. Over the last few years, the financial sector has experienced its worst crisis since the 1930s. The collapse of major firms, the decline in asset values, the interruption of credit flows, the loss of confidence in firms and credit market instruments, the intervention by governments and central banks: all were extraordinary in scale and scope. In this book, leading economists Randall Kroszner and Robert Shiller discuss what the United States should do to prevent another such financial meltdown. Their discussion goes beyond the nuts and bolts of legislative and regulatory fixes to consider fundamental changes in our financial arrangements. Kroszner and Shiller offer two distinctive approaches to financial reform, with Kroszner providing a systematic analysis of regulatory gaps and Shiller addressing the broader concerns of democratizing and humanizing finance. After brief discussions by four commentators (Benjamin M. Friedman, George G. Kaufman, Robert C. Pozen, and Hal S. Scott), Kroszner and Shiller each offer a response to the other's proposals, creating a fruitful dialogue between two major figures in the field.