The great inflation and early disinflation in Japan and Germany

Edward Nelson

No 2006-052, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: This paper considers the Great Inflation of the 1970s in Japan and Germany. From 1975 onward, these countries had low inflation relative to other large economies. Traditionally, this success is attributed to stronger discipline on the part of Japan and Germany?s monetary authorities?for example, more willingness to accept temporary unemployment, or greater determination not to monetize government deficits. I instead attribute the success of these countries from the mid-1970s to their governments? and monetary authorities? acceptance that inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Likewise their higher inflation in the first half of the 1970s is attributable to the fact that their policymakers over this period embraced nonmonetary theories of inflation.

Keywords: Inflation (Finance); Economic conditions - Japan; Economic conditions - Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-mac, nep-mon and nep-sea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in International Journal of Central Banking, December 2007, 3(4), pp. 23-76

Downloads: (external link)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2006/2006-052.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Great Inflation and Early Disinflation in Japan and Germany (2007)
Working Paper: The Great Inflation and Early Disinflation in Japan and Germany (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2006-052

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anna Oates ().