Inflation targeting and firm performance in developing countries

Abstract

Using a panel of 31,027 firms in 47 developing countries over the period 2006-2020, this paper looks at the effects of inflation targeting on firm performance. Estimations performed using entropy balancing to address endogeneity in policy adoption reveal that inflation targeting significantly increases firm performance, mainly measured by sales growth and productivity growth. This effect is robust to a wide range of tests (including alternative models, measures, and samples), and may vary under different macroeconomic and firms' structural characteristics. Lastly, by looking at possible transmission channels, we reveal that these favorable effects seem related with the capacity of the inflation targeting framework to reduce macroeconomic instability.