A Nominal Income Growth Target for a Conservative ECB? When the policy mix matters

Abstract

This paper contributes to the goal-versus-instrument independence debate for the ECB, exploring how alternative monetary arrangements perform when the fiscal authority pursues a strategy of debt reduction in the long term but retains fiscal flexibility in response to supply shocks. If fiscal policy is countercyclical, a constant nominal income growth target should be assigned to a conservative central banker. In fact, as the fiscal authority and the central bank act independently in setting their countercyclical policies, an activist central banker causes excess volatility of inflation.