@techreport{NBERw12492,
 title = "Changes in the Federal Reserve's Inflation Target: Causes and Consequences",
 author = "Peter N. Ireland",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "12492",
 year = "2006",
 month = "August",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w12492",
 abstract = {This paper estimates a New Keynesian model to draw inferences about the behavior of the Federal Reserve's unobserved inflation target. The results indicate that the target rose from 1 1/4 percent in 1959 to over 8 percent in the mid-to-late 1970s before falling back below 2 1/2 percent in 2004. The results also provide some support for the hypothesis that over the entire postwar period, Federal Reserve policy has systematically translated short-run price pressures set off by supply-side shocks into more persistent movements in inflation itself, although considerable uncertainty remains about the true source of shifts in the inflation target.},
}