EUROPE  |  WORKING PAPERS

Towards a New Paradigm – the Inflation Shock as a Catalyst?

by Jérôme Creel, François Geerolf, Sandrine Levasseur, Xavier Ragot & Francesco Saraceno

PUBLISHED

25. MARCH 2024

During the recent inflation episode, the paradigm of separated objectives for monetary and fiscal policies has shown some limits. Fiscal policies have helped mitigate inflation. We advocate for the emergence of a new paradigm that gives equal consideration to fiscal and monetary policies and their interactions. These interactions and their respective spillover effects demand better political coordination and a good dose of pragmatism, in contrast with the binding rules embedded in the separation paradigm so present in the European governance framework. The latter should give more leeway to supply-driven fiscal policies and learn from the US experience.

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The euro was planned during a period in which economic policy making was driven by a deep belief in market liberalism and the near impossibility of systemic financial crises. This belief has been brought into question since the euro crisis, which showed that panics do happen. New thinking needs to focus on developing mechanisms to protect eurozone countries from such panics and to foster economic convergence between members.

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