Revisiting the Link Between Stock Prices and Goods Prices in OECD Countries

Fisher hypothesis postulates positive relation between stock return and inflation; however early studies document negative relationship between the two and they conclude that stock cannot be used as a hedge against inflation. In this paper we explore long‐run nonlinear relationship between stock price and goods price. Our sample consists of 19 OECD countries; all or some of these countries have been studied before with the findings of linear cointegration between the stock index and goods price index. Based on unit root tests and linear cointegration test, we apply threshold cointegration tests, Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration test and panel VAR method. With all these econometric methods we arrive at heterogeneous findings as follows: two countries have linear cointegration, five countries have threshold cointegration, nine countries do not have any cointegration and finally two countries provide inconclusive results. Estimates of Fisher coefficient provided by linear and nonlinear cointegration methods, which range between 1.27 and 1.86, are consistent with previous studies. Impulse response analysis from panel VAR for countries having no cointegrating relation shows that shock to inflation produces negative response in stock return, which supports findings of earlier studies.     

IV threshold cointegration tests and the Taylor rule

The usual cointegration tests often entail nuisance parameters that hinder precise inference. This problem is even more pronounced in a nonlinear threshold framework when stationary covariates are included. In this paper, we propose new threshold cointegration tests based on instrumental variables estimation. The newly suggested IV threshold cointegration tests have standard distributions that do not depend on any stationary covariates. These desirable properties allow us to formally test for threshold cointegration in a nonlinear Taylor rule. We perform this analysis using real-time U.S. data for several sample periods from 1970 to 2005. In contrast to the linear model, we find strong evidence of cointegration in a nonlinear Taylor rule with threshold effects. Overall, we find that the Federal Reserve is far more policy active when inflation is high than when inflation is low. In addition, we reaffirm the notion that the response to counteract high inflation was weakest in the 1970s and strongest in the Greenspan era.     

中国服务贸易与货物贸易因果关系分析——基于误差修正模型的中美对比分析

运用时间序列分析和因果关系分析,对比分析中美两国各自货物贸易和服务贸易之间的延迟引导关系。协整分析和格兰杰因果关系检验结果明确了中国实现服务贸易与货物贸易可持续发展的内生性难题:中国服务出口的增长最终促进同时期货物出口的增长,与美国服务出口的增长最终促进同时期服务出口的增长这一内在动力差别较大。     

A PANIC analysis on regional and sectoral inflation: the Spanish case

This article studies the stochastic properties of several inflation rates for the Spanish economy using the consumer price index (CPI) for the 17 regions and 12 groups of goods and services, and the producer price index (PPI) for 26 industrial sectors. To this end, we employ the panel analysis of nonstationarity in idiosyncratic and common components (PANIC) approach proposed by Bai and Ng (2004, 2010). This methodology enables us to decompose the observed inflation rate series into a common and an idiosyncratic component, thus allowing us to identify the exact source of nonstationarity. Our analysis provides strong evidence of the presence of a common stochastic trend driving the observed series forming the panel of CPI-based inflation rates for the regions. This, coupled with the presence of a jointly stationary idiosyncratic component, implies the existence of pairwise cointegration across the regional CPI-based inflation rates, which show a clear pattern of convergence over time. This gives an indication of increased geographical homogeneity in consumption patterns. The evidence for the panels of CPI-based inflation of groups of goods and services and PPI-based inflation of industrial sectors indicates the existence of four independent common stochastic trends. This, combined with jointly stationary idiosyncratic series, provides much weaker evidence of cross-cointegration for these two panels.     

Gold and inflation(s) – A time-varying relationship

What is the relationship between the price of gold and inflation? How stable is it – over time and across measures of inflation? We examine this for three countries (the USA, the UK and Japan) - over forty years and with a variety of measures of inflation and monetary liquidity. We apply a formal test for time variation and proceed to extract time varying cointegration relationships. Both formal and graphical evidence points to a break in the relationship(s) of gold and official inflation in the mid 1990s in the USA but to less clear results for the UK and Japan. However, gold seems to have offered a protection against an increase in money supply throughout nearly the entire past 40 year period in the US and the UK but failed to do so in Japan. Supporting previous findings we find evidence for a time-varying relationship in cointegration between gold and both predicted and realized inflation in nearly all cases. Contrasting multiple inflation indicators, we find evidence for the importance of money supply in the gold/inflation relationship.     

Inflation targeting and inflation expectations in Mexico

In this article we analyse inflation expectations in Mexico. After a review of the theoretical and empirical literature, we apply unit root, normality and cointegration tests to the data provided by Banco de México (Banxico) in the Survey on the Expectations of the Private Sector Economics Specialists. Our results reject the null hypothesis of normality for inflation expectations over the period 2004:01–2011:12. The exchange rate has become one of the most relevant variables in the transmission mechanism of monetary policy in a small open economy. In this regard, we show the existence of a long-run relationship between nominal exchange rate and interest rate where inflation expectations matter for long-term dynamics.     

我国通货膨胀与货币供给和经济增长的关系研究

基于协整检验和VAR模型选取1984～2010年的年度数据研究了通货膨胀与货币供给和经济增长之间的关系,研究表明:货币供给和经济增长都会导致通货膨胀,但通货膨胀不会引发货币超发,且一定的通货膨胀对经济增长具有正向刺激作用;货币供应量扩张对通货膨胀有促进作用,但影响程度逐步减弱,经济增长也会促使物价水平的上涨,但影响程度明显小于货币供给水平的影响;经济增长对物价水平的影响小于货币供应量对物价水平的影响,即货币供应量诱发通货膨胀,抑制通货膨胀的最好途径是解决货币供给问题;经济系统中存在"通货膨胀螺旋"效应。     

Monetary Growth and Inflation in China: A Reexamination

Using the notion of cointegration theory and its implied vector error correction modeling strategy, this paper reexamines the relationship between monetary forces and inflation in mainland China. Contrary to most recent research in this area, these results based on unit root and cointegration tests indicate a reliable long-run relationship between the general price level and the money stock, as well as between inflation and monetary growth. Our findings also suggest a bi-directional or feedback relationship between inflation and monetary growth. J. Comp. Econom., December 1999, 27(4), pp. 669–685. School of Financial Studies and Law, Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Pond Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, United Kingdom.     

Threshold Effects on the Relationship Between Inflation Rate and Economic Growth in Tunisia

Using an econometric technique suggested by Hansen [(2001). The new econometrics of structural change: Dating breaks in U.S. Labor productivity. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 117–128], this paper studies the inflation–economic growth nexus in the case of Tunisia for the 1993-01–2012-11 period. The results show that there is one inflation threshold value that does exist for Tunisia. This evidence strongly sustains the view that the relationship between inflation rate and economic growth is non-linear. The estimated threshold regression model suggests that a threshold value of inflation rate below 3.48% fosters economic growth. In addition, above this threshold level, there is a statistically significant negative relationship between inflation rate and economic growth. These results have important implications to policy-makers who should pay attention to the inflation phenomena. Therefore, a new policy that takes into account such a threshold should be set up.     

Estimation of a German money demand system – a long-run analysis

This study presents a multivariate analysis of the stability of long-run relationships between variables that influence the conduct and transmission process of the German monetary policy. The initial VAR comprises the variables real money M3, real GNP, the inflation rate, a long-term and a weighted short-term interest rate. A multivariate approach has been chosen, as this allows for more than one cointegration relationship and to test restrictions on the cointegration space. In contrast to most other studies on German monetary policy, three stable and economically plausible cointegration relationships are obtained simultaneously within the framework of the Johansen procedure: a money demand relationship, a long-run Fisher effect and a long-run relationship between the short- and the long-term interest rate. It is apparent that the structural break of German reunification can be modelled incorporating dummy variables in the model. First version received: October 1996/final version received: July 1997     

Money and Inflation: International Evidence Based on Cointegration Theory

This study investigates the relationship between money and inflation using cointegration tests. For a broad sample of countries, the paper finds that most time series data underlying a typical monetarist model are nonstationary, indicating that it is necessary to appropriately transform the data in order to render the confidence tests reliable. Our principal finding is that money and inflation are related only in countries with high inflation [E 31]     

Consumption and fiscal policy

This paper uses the life-cycle approach to derive an equilibrium intratemporal efficiency condition which relates the marginal utility of consumption of nondurable goods and services to the marginal utility of consumption of services from durable goods. Given this condition and the assumption that marginal utilities are affected by the level of public spending, a long-run relationship between components of private consumption and public expenditure is then postulated. The application of cointegration analysis to UK data supports the existence and uniqueness of such a long-run relationship, and estimates based on the error correction approach produce results which suggest that (i) a change in public spending has different effects on components of private consumption in the short-run, and (ii) the entire burden of long-run substitution falls on nondurable consumption.     

Services inflation dynamics and persistence puzzle in Brazil: a time-varying parameter approach

This article analyses services inflation dynamics in Brazil, focusing on the Services Inflation Persistence Puzzle, for monthly data from January 2004 to February 2016. We apply a time-varying parameter (TVP) approach, via a Kalman filter, to estimate hybrid Phillips curves and compare inflation inertia for tradable goods and services inflation. Aggregate Brazilian Extended Consumer Price Index inflation serves as a benchmark. To justify the TVP analysis, parameter instability and structural change tests are implemented, based on OLS and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) frameworks. The main results are as follows: (i) the TVP approach is relevant due to observed instability in some parameters estimated; (ii) inflation expectation coefficients are higher than lagged inflation in all calculations, but inflation inertia is not negligible at all; (iii) services inflation persistence ranges from 27 to 36%, whereas tradable goods inflation persistence ranges from 36 to 47%, providing evidence of the Services Inflation Persistence Puzzle in Brazil; (iv) from 2009 onwards an increase in one percentage point in real wages raises monthly services inflation rate by 0.02 to 0.03 percentage point; (v) there is evidence that cost-push pressures, due to wage increases in the service sector, are more important to explain services inflation than demand pressures from early 2009 to mid-2014.     

中国经济增长与通货膨胀间非对称关系的实证分析

利用1985—2012年中国主要宏观经济变量数据,采用门限自回归模型实证检验了通货膨胀对经济增长的非线性影响。研究结果表明,通货膨胀门限效应明显存在;在门限值以上,通货膨胀对经济增长起阻碍作用;在门限值以下,通货膨胀对经济增长起促进作用。在此基础上,利用平滑转换回归模型进一步检验了通货膨胀与经济增长之间的非线性关系,不同模型的实证结果都支持通货膨胀门限效应存在。     

能源消费与经济增长非线性关系分析：基于门限协整系统

学术界对经济增长与能源消费二者之间关系的研究,主要以线性关系假设为前提。本文在非线性框架下,利用Hansen and Seo(2002)最新发展的门限协整方法(threshold cointegration test)对中国的经济增长和能源消费两者之间的关系重新进行了检验。实证结果表明经济增长和能源消费两者之间存在非线性两机制门限协整,当对均衡的偏离小于或等于门限值-7.85时,经济增长和能源消费倾向于不向均衡状态调整,而当对均衡的偏离大于门限值-7.85时,他们都倾向于向均衡状态调整,并且能源消费的调整速度大于经济增长调整的速度。     

The Bundesbank's Inflation Policy and Asymmetric Behavior of the German Term Structure

The paper analyzes the influence of the Bundesbank's inflation targeting policy on the behavior of the spread between long‐term and short‐term German interest rates. The term spread is considered to be a key indicator of future inflation and economic activity. The application of a momentum threshold autoregressive cointegration model enables the authors to study the adjustment process of the spread toward equilibrium in greater detail than heretofore possible, and permits relaxation of the linear and symmetric adjustment assumption underlying conventional cointegration and error correction investigations on the expectations hypothesis. The empirical findings are consistent with the hypothesized asymmetric adjustment behavior of the spread and can be explained by the Bundesbank's inflation targeting policy during the period from 1975 to 1998.     

Macroeconomic Determinants of Crime: Evidence from India

This paper examines the relationship between crime, inflation, unemployment, and real GDP per capita in India. Based on the national-level data, the Johansen cointegration test confirms the presence of cointegration relationship between the variables. The Toda–Yamamoto Granger causality test suggests that macroeconomic indicators, especially unemployment, can significantly affect crime in India. Based on the state-level data, the ordinary least squares results corroborate the effect of inflation on crime even after controlling for governance. However, they fail to verify the relationship between crime, unemployment, and real GDP per capita.

     

Dynamic asset allocation and consumption under inflation inequality: The impacts of inflation experiences and expectations

Differences in spending patterns and in price increases across goods and services lead to the unequal inflation experiences of households (called inflation inequality). These differences then cause disagreements in inflation expectations and eventually have a significant effect on households’ asset allocation and consumption decisions. The asset allocation model in this paper explains how inflation experiences affect household investment and consumption through corresponding inflation expectations, which are characterized by long-term expected inflation, the impact coefficient of the expected inflation and the correlation between expected inflation and the risky return. Using China's economic data, the empirical results show that significant differences in inflation expectation arise from income gap, regional inequality, different inflation measures and economic sector spending differences. Using the estimated coefficients, the calibration results have policy implications that households need more financing channels to resist inflation, especially in rural areas and in the raw material sector.     

后金融危机的货币供给过剩及其效应

本文针对我国货币政策的操作特征,使用阈值协整方法扩展现有的货币需求模型,度量后金融危机时期的货币供给过剩及其对通胀与经济增长的非线性调节效应,并进而设定广义脉冲响应函数揭示货币供给过剩对通胀与经济增长的冲击效应。主要结论为:2009年第三季度以后,我国货币供给过剩且过剩幅度快速增加,其中名义M1过剩12.56%,名义M2过剩11.31%。2009Q3—2010Q3我国处于货币供给过剩机制下,在该机制下,央行谨慎地实施从紧货币政策,从紧货币政策对通胀和经济增长的调节效应相对较强。货币供给过剩对通胀和经济增长的冲击在前2年为正值,在随后近3年为负值。这说明我国现阶段适度宽松货币政策的退出必须谨慎,退出速度不宜过快。     

Macroeconomic performance index: a new approach to calculation of economic wellbeing

Since the rise of the global financial crisis, there has been revival of interest in performance indexes that measure the overall stance of the economy and the wellbeing of households. Such indexes typically consist of inflation, growth, employment and long-term interest rates. We develop such an index by appending exchange rate and weighting each variable by the inverse of its variance in order to prevent the more volatile variable to dominate the index. We call this macroeconomic performance index (MPI) and argue that such an index better explains the overall economic stance especially in emerging economies. We generate the index using data from three emerging economies, namely Turkey, Brazil and Poland. Our analysis indicates that the index has a nonlinear structure and hence we analyse its behaviour using threshold autoregressive (TAR) model. It is observed that MPI captures the economic stance and main economic incidents quite successfully in each subject country. To further see the relevance of the MPI, we run TAR cointegration analysis with consumer confidence indexes (CCIs) for the subject countries with TAR cointegration test. The results indicate long-term relationship between the MPI and CCI in all three countries.