From the introduction of the editors:

Louis-Philippe Rochon and Sergio Rossi focus on the monetary policy strategy of the ECB. They argue that over the last six years it has become increasingly evident that in the EU, with an independent ECB pursuing the single objective of price level stability in the Euro area, monetary policy does not live up to its goals, as enshrined in the EU Treaty. In fact, the monetary policy carried out by the ECB has not been oriented to output and employment stabilisation so far, but merely concentrated on the stability of the targeted price index, without however being able to meet it. As a matter of fact, in the last six years the ECB failed to achieve the price stability goal that its own Governing Council has established numerically. The paper focuses on the ECB’s monetary policy stance, to point out its actual asymmetry as regards price level stability and economic performance in terms of employment and output growth. It then addresses the question whether the observed decrease in measured inflation rates in the euro area is really attributable to monetary policy alone. In this regard, Rochon and Rossi assess the success of this policy considering other macroeconomic variables, notably the evolution of the share of nominal wages in national income. Their conclusions show that there appears to be a decline in the wage share in most countries within the Euro area.