A Look Back at "Look Through"

This paper examines the place that a “look-through” approach to price shocks has acquired in inflation-targeting frameworks. The “look-through” approach reflects the fact that, in the event of a shock that is likely (on impact) to put a sizable share of consumer prices under upward pressure, one option available to the central bank is to accommodate the initial price rise. In doing so, it can also attempt to ensure that future inflation rates, and inflation expectations, are insulated from the shock. Although the policy of “looking through” has achieved considerable acceptance, its origins are not widely understood. The analysis provided here indicates that key aspects of the “look-through” approach were aired in U.S. public discourse in 1973−1974, when the appropriate response to the first oil shock was being considered. The approach was subsequently refined in the course of several countries’ experiences of price shocks from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s, with the specific “look through” terminology emerging at the end of this period. The connection between the “look-through” approach and the notion of inflation expectations being anchored by the central bank is also considered.