Editors’ note

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

Editors’ note

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

Editors’ note

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

‘Talking down monetary policy’ – a note

There is a recent debate about whether ultra-expansionary monetary policy is no longer effective in stimulating demand, a concern often voiced in the euro area in light of persistently low and even negative inflation. As a response, the European Central Bank (ECB) warns against ‘talking down monetary policy’ (ECB Vice-President Vítor Constâncio, 2016). This note uses a textbook model of optimal monetary policy to study a situation in which the public misperceives the interest rate elasticity of aggregate demand, which reflects policy effectiveness. We show that as a result of underestimating policy effectiveness demand shocks can no longer be stabilized perfectly, thus resulting in inefficient inflation and output dynamics. In the presence of misperceptions, a negative demand shock leads to a prolonged period of negative inflation rates.     

A brief note concerning Hayek’s non-standard conception of knowledge

Whatever F.A. Hayek meant by “knowledge” could not have been the justified true belief conception common in the Western intellectual tradition from at least the time of Plato onward. In this brief note, I aim to uncover and succinctly state Hayek’s unique definition of knowledge.     

Special issue on advanced methods to measure tourism impacts. Editors’ introduction

Portuguese Economic Journal -     

A note on ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing Channel Coordination’

Goering (2012) works on a bilateral monopoly with perfect marketing channel coordination to analyze the effects of corporate social responsibility. He starts the analysis of a bilateral monopoly with socially concerned firms where either the manufacturer or the retailer is additionally to its profit interested in a share of consumer surplus. In this short note, we extend this analysis and study the case where both firms are socially concerned. As a result, we enlarge the analysis started by Goering (2012) and get further interesting insights into a bilateral monopoly with corporate social responsibility. First, we are able to summarize ‘Proposition 1’ and ‘Proposition 4’ into a common one and figure out the circumstances when the wholesale price fixed by the manufacturer is below marginal costs. Second, we explain analytically the findings from ‘Proposition 3’ and ‘Proposition 6’. We point out the model's key assumption – the perfectly coordinated marketing channel – as the driver of the results and the reason for the equilibrium results' independence from retailer's social concern.     

Hayek’s monetary theory and policy: A note on alleged inconsistency

Challenging the dominant view, we claim that Hayek’s monetary views did not significantly change over his lifetime. The prevalent perception of early Hayek as a money stream stabilizer and late Hayek as a price level stabilizer is attributable to an unjustified normative interpretation of Hayek’s positive analysis. We argue that in his contributions to monetary theory, Hayek took the goals of monetary policy as exogenously given and analysed the efficiency of different means of achieving them. Hayek’s allegedly inconsistent transformation from a critic to an advocate of price level stabilization is explained by a change of issues under his focus, rather than by a change in his positive views. We also claim that Hayek was always aware that every practical monetary policy involves difficult trade-offs and that he was therefore reluctant to impose his own value judgments on what people should strive for.     

Editor��s note

Editorial

Editor’s note     

Special issue: 20th anniversary of the Portuguese Economic Journal. Editors’ introduction

Portuguese Economic Journal -