Is inflation targeting compatible with Post Keynesian economics?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show that inflation targeting is compatible with Post Keynesian economics, but only if the policies used to achieve the inflation target explicitly acknowledge (1) the demand-determined nature of the real income generating process, and (2) the importance of conflicting claims over the distribution of income for determining the rate of inflation. The paper then questions whether or not policy makers should trouble to engage in inflation targeting. It is shown that there does exist a Post Keynesian case for inflation targeting, but that the appropriate inflation target that emerges from Post Keynesian economics suggests that far too much attention is currently being paid to inflation and that more of policy makers' attention should be devoted to output (and, by extension, employment) targeting.

Keywords:

• inflation targeting
• new consensus
• Post Keynesian economics