MONETARY POLICY RULES IN THE RUN-UP TO THE EMU

We characterize central bank behavior in the euro area during the run-up to the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) era by estimating Taylor rule-type reaction functions at both the individual and aggregate level. We focus on whether national monetary policies during the run-up to the EMU were responding to economic developments according to their own policy rules or to a broader, euro area-wide, policy rule. To consider the last possibility we examine whether national monetary policies were responding to German interest rates. Finally, we compare the performance of the estimated with imposed policy rules.