All else being equal, the diffusion of high levels of education is associated with better conditions of health and an increase in life expectancy, since it can lead to less risky behaviour and a greater ability to assimilate and act on information serving to prevent illness and gain access to available therapies. 2.
Standard models analyzing monetary policy take the trend growth rate and the inflation rate in steady state as given and focus on economic fluctuations around the trend. The central interest of monetary policy analysis employing such models is how to smooth cyclical economic fluctuations and to stabilize the inflation rate near the target level.