FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS REVIEW SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2006 431 Do Inflation Targeters Outperform Non-targeters? Michael J. Dueker and Andreas M. Fischer updates the empirical evidence from an early study on inflation targeting by Dueker and Fischer (1996a) (denoted as D-F hereafter) that sought to provide an answer to the question: Do inflation targets impart an aversion to inflation and infla- tion variability among inflation-targeting countries above and beyond that displayed by non-inflation- targeting countries? D-F examined this question by matching three early adopters of inflation targets—New Zealand (which adopted an inflation target in 1990), Canada (1991), and the United Kingdom (1992)—with three neighboring coun- tries that did not have formal inflation targets in the early 1990s—Australia, the United States, and Germany, respectively. All three inflation targeters achieved their announced targets ahead of sched- ule, perhaps in part because the 1990s saw a marked disinflation throughout the industrialized world. Numerous studies have re-examined the empirical effects of inflation targeting. Many subsequent studies have followed the formula laid out in D-F: Match each inflation-targeting S ince its inception in the early 1990s, inflation targeting has unleashed consid- erable debate on the merits of the new policy framework. Its introduction has raised numerous issues: the difficulty of evaluat- ing central bank performance in achieving the target, the effect of inflation targeting on inflation expectations, the choice of inflation indicators, links with exchange rate policy, and the interac- tion between the central bank and the central government. Analysis of these issues was valuable not only to decisionmakers and analysts in the countries where inflation targets were already in use, but also to those countries contemplating such a policy. Revisiting the perceived merits of inflation targeting is especially timely now that Ben Bernanke, who has a clear academic record in favor of a quantitative inflation objective, is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Contributions to the policy debate concerning inflation targeting have come in the form of theo- retical analysis and empirical evidence. This note Ten years of empirical studies of inflation targeting have not uncovered clear evidence that monetary policy that incorporates formal targets imparts better inflation performance. The authors survey the literature and find that the “no difference” verdict concerning inflation targeting has been robust to a wide range of countries and methods of analysis, starting with a study by Dueker and Fischer (1996a). The authors present updated Markov-switching estimates from the original Dueker and Fischer (1996a) article and show that their early conclusions about inflation targeting among early adopters have not been overturned with an additional decade of data. These findings to date do not rule out the possibility, however, that formal inflation targets could prove pivotal if the global environment of disinflation were to reverse course. (JEL E52, E42, E61) Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, September/October 2006, 88(5), pp. 431-50. Michael J. Dueker is an assistant vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and Andreas M. Fischer is a research adviser at the Swiss National Bank. Andrew Alberts provided research assistance. © 2006, The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Articles may be reprinted, reproduced, published, distributed, displayed, and transmitted in their entirety if copyright notice, author name(s), and full citation are included. Abstracts, synopses, and other derivative works may be made only with prior written permission of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.