We can conclude that the mere possibility that more liberal policies can be adopted in the future, even if this ultimately never occurs, induces an increase in inflation in the short-run and a significant and permanent reduction in output.
The intuition for this result goes as follows. Other things equal, the possibility of having more liberal policies in the future increases inflation expectations. As a consequence, on the one hand the central bank increases current inflation, thus
accommodating the higher inflation expectations in the effort to limit the reduction in output. On the other hand, the central bank promises to reduce inflation inthe future, for the case the conservative objectives still prevail.15 In this way, it reduces the inflation expectations, limiting the negative externality generated by the possibility that policy objectives become more liberal. This means that as time passes by, inflation will not be used to foster production, and thus output will be lower.