Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America
It has become common wisdom amongst monetary policy professionals that central banks in Latin America should adopt inflation targeting. Pure inflation targeting implicitly assumes a social loss welfare function dependent on only inflation. In this working paper, using subjective well-being survey data for Latin America the authors present evidence that both inflation and unemployment reduce wellbeing; where the cost of inflation in terms of unemployment, hence the relative size of the weights in a social well-being function, is about one to eight, almost double of that found for OECD countries. The evidence presented in this paper, combined with the low frequency of happiness data, may not be sufficiently convincing for central banks to adopt happiness-targeting rule. However, happiness data would be useful to inform policy makers regarding the optimal disinflation policy or at least allow consciousness of the potential discontent of different sub-groups of the population of different disinflation strategies.
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Subjects: | Income, Consumption and Saving, Workforce and Employment, C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General, D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions, D60 - Welfare Economics: General, I31 - General Welfare Well-Being, O54 - Latin America • Caribbean, WP-02/09, |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011178 https://publications.iadb.org/en/should-central-banks-target-happiness-evidence-latin-america |
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dig-bid-node-105882024-05-30T20:25:17ZShould Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America 2009-01-01T00:00:00+0000 http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011178 https://publications.iadb.org/en/should-central-banks-target-happiness-evidence-latin-america Inter-American Development Bank Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 It has become common wisdom amongst monetary policy professionals that central banks in Latin America should adopt inflation targeting. Pure inflation targeting implicitly assumes a social loss welfare function dependent on only inflation. In this working paper, using subjective well-being survey data for Latin America the authors present evidence that both inflation and unemployment reduce wellbeing; where the cost of inflation in terms of unemployment, hence the relative size of the weights in a social well-being function, is about one to eight, almost double of that found for OECD countries. The evidence presented in this paper, combined with the low frequency of happiness data, may not be sufficiently convincing for central banks to adopt happiness-targeting rule. However, happiness data would be useful to inform policy makers regarding the optimal disinflation policy or at least allow consciousness of the potential discontent of different sub-groups of the population of different disinflation strategies. Inter-American Development Bank Pavel Luengas Inder J. Ruprah Working Papers application/pdf IDB Publications The Caribbean Central America South America en |
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Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 |
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Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 Inter-American Development Bank Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
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It has become common wisdom amongst monetary policy professionals that central banks in Latin America should adopt inflation targeting. Pure inflation targeting implicitly assumes a social loss welfare function dependent on only inflation. In this working paper, using subjective well-being survey data for Latin America the authors present evidence that both inflation and unemployment reduce wellbeing; where the cost of inflation in terms of unemployment, hence the relative size of the weights in a social well-being function, is about one to eight, almost double of that found for OECD countries. The evidence presented in this paper, combined with the low frequency of happiness data, may not be sufficiently convincing for central banks to adopt happiness-targeting rule. However, happiness data would be useful to inform policy makers regarding the optimal disinflation policy or at least allow consciousness of the potential discontent of different sub-groups of the population of different disinflation strategies. |
author2 |
Pavel Luengas |
author_facet |
Pavel Luengas Inter-American Development Bank |
format |
Working Papers |
topic_facet |
Income Consumption and Saving Workforce and Employment C30 - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models • Multiple Variables: General D31 - Personal Income Wealth and Their Distributions D60 - Welfare Economics: General I31 - General Welfare Well-Being O54 - Latin America • Caribbean WP-02/09 |
author |
Inter-American Development Bank |
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Inter-American Development Bank |
title |
Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
title_short |
Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
title_full |
Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
title_fullStr |
Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
title_full_unstemmed |
Should Central Banks Target Happiness?: Evidence from Latin America |
title_sort |
should central banks target happiness?: evidence from latin america |
publisher |
Inter-American Development Bank |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0011178 https://publications.iadb.org/en/should-central-banks-target-happiness-evidence-latin-america |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT interamericandevelopmentbank shouldcentralbankstargethappinessevidencefromlatinamerica |
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