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Many central banks have become more transparent during the last decade, in particular about macroeconomic prospects. This paper shows that such economic transparency could give central banks greater flexibility to respond to macroeconomic shocks. In particular, it allows central banks to stabilize aggregate demand and supply shocks without affecting private sector inflation expectations. In contrast, opaque central banks limit their stabilization efforts to avoid disturbing inflation expectations. As a result, they mute their interest rate response and no longer fully offset anticipated demand shocks. This leads to macroeconomic volatility that is socially detrimental.

There has been a remarkable rise in the transparency of monetary policy during the last two decades. This paper provides an overview of the ways in which central banks have been providing more information about their monetary policymaking. Furthermore, it reviews the theoretical literature on monetary policy transparency and relevant empirical findings. The focus is on understanding two key developments, the notable increase in openness about macroeconomic prospects and the recent advance of forward policy guidance.

Transparency has become a prominent feature of monetary policy. This paper provides an overview of central bank communication practices and is the first to systematically analyze transparency trends throughout the world and across monetary policy frameworks. It shows that increases in information disclosure have not been confined to inflation targeting but extend to other monetary policy frameworks, although there are significant differences. In addition, countries with higher inflation and economic development have undergone larger increases in transparency. Moreover, it shows that greater transparency has been followed by lower average inflation.

Conventional wisdom says that commitment eliminates the inflationary bias of monetary policy. However, this paper shows that the inflation bias can persist even when the central bank commits. A simple model is presented in which the central bank precommits by setting the policy instrument, and the subsequent adjustment of inflation expectations is part of the transmission mechanism. Generally there is still an inflation bias, despite the absence of a time-inconsistency problem. It is caused by uncertainty about the economic disturbances to which the central bank responds. Only perfect transparency about economic information completely eliminates the inflation bias.