A mixture of action by central banks and sheer luck has kept inflation low in recent years, according to a group of leading academics, who warn it would be dangerous to become complacent.

“It has, in fact, been a mixed bag of good and bad policies, and of good and bad luck, that has kept inflation low and relatively stable,” write David Miles, Ugo Panizza, Ricardo Reis and Ángel Ubide.

They cross-examine the factors behind low inflation in many advanced economies over the past decade in the