Introduction
Nearly 30 countries have adopted inflation-targeting frameworks, driven by a conviction that defining
an explicit inflation target and communicating how the central bank will strive to meet that goal
is the best monetary policy strategy for maintaining inflation at a relatively low and stable level
without sacrificing long-term growth.1 Nonetheless, it is still an open question whether countries
that have adopted inflation-targeting regimes have lower inflation and better economic performance
than countries that follow other monetary frameworks, see for example the research on macroeconomic
performance in Ball (2011), Ball and Sheridan (2005), Gon¸calves and Salles (2002), and Brito
and Bystedt (2010). Others have taken a different approach by looking for evidence on the extent
to which inflation expectations are well anchored using survey and financial market data. Because
of data limitations, however, most of the latter work has focused on the experience of industrialized
countries. In this study, we overcome some of these data problems for developing countries and
explore whether, and to what degree, long-term inflation expectations are well anchored in three
emerging market economies: Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.