The optimal neglect of inflation: An alternative interpretation of UK monetary policy during the “Great Moderation”

This paper argues that UK monetary policymakers did not respond to the inflation rate during most of the “Great Moderation” that ran from the early 1990s to the mid-2000s. We derive a generalisation of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in which inflation is a non-linear function of the output gap and show that the optimal response of the policy rule to inflation depends on the slope of the Phillips curve; if this is flat, manipulation of aggregate demand through monetary policy does not affect inflation and so policymakers cannot affect inflation. We estimate the monetary policy rules implied by a variety of alternative Phillips curves; our preferred model is based on a Phillips curve that is flat when output is close to equilibrium. We find that policy rates do not respond to inflation when the output gap is small, a situation that characterised most of the “Great Moderation” period.     

Monetary transmission mechanism in Turkey under free float using a small-scale macroeconomic model

This study analyzes the monetary transmission mechanism in the Turkish economy following the switch to free float under informal inflation targeting scheme in the aftermath of the February 2001 crisis. A small-scale macroeconomic model is simulated using equations for output gap, exchange rate, sub-items of inflation, short-term policy rate, government borrowing rate, “Embi+ Turkey” and inflation expectations. The preliminary results indicate that, despite some slight departures, both static and dynamic simulations capture the dynamics of the fundamental economic variables. The results also show that at a time of weak domestic demand, output gap has been seemingly less significant in determining inflation. Furthermore, risk premium as measured by “Embi+ Turkey” has a high explanatory power in shaping government borrowing rate and exchange rate. Finally, forward-looking component of inflation has been effective in determining non-administered prices.     

Domestic and global output gaps as inflation drivers: What does the Phillips curve tell?

We study how domestic and global output gaps affect CPI inflation. We use a New-Keynesian Phillips curve framework which controls for non-linear exchange rate movements for a panel of 26 advanced and 22 emerging economies covering the 1994Q1−2017Q4 period. We find that both global and domestic output gaps are significant drivers of inflation both in the pre-crisis (1994–2008) and post-crisis (2008–2017) periods. Furthermore, after the crisis, in advanced economies the effect of the domestic output gap declines, while in emerging economies the effect of the global output gap declines. Our results suggest that emerging and advanced economies have become more similar to each other in terms of output gaps as inflation drivers. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in identifying the impact of global and domestic output gaps on inflation.     

转型时期我国"产出-物价"菲利普斯曲线的动态变化趋势

笔者使用可变参数模型揭示了转型时期我国产出-物价菲利普斯曲线的动态变化趋势。研究结果表明:(1)通货膨胀率对经济增长率的反应系数均为正值,表明转型以来我国经济系统的冲击主要来自于总需求方面;(2)通货膨胀率对经济增长率的反应系数呈现凸型变动模式,并且已经过了波动的顶峰,出现显著下降并逐渐稳定的趋势,这种趋势有助于同时实现经济增长目标和稳定物价目标;(3)反映总体价格水平的价格指数不宜再作为判断宏观经济态势的指示器,但国民经济中一些重要领域的价格波动却仍然值得关注。     

Increased price flexibility and output stability

Simulation results of previous authors show an ambiguous effect of increased price flexibility on output stability in models incorporating a Mundell inflation effect on aggregate demand. This paper interprets their results in an analytically tractable model with imperfect, goods-market competition. To be destabilizing, increased flexibility must increase the “hump” of the price level's response to demand shocks. Output variability is always reduced by increasing the size of the flex-price sector and sometimes reduced by shortening contract lengths in the fix-price sector.     

Output,Inflation and the New Keynesian Phillips Curve

Explicit modelling of factor markets clarifies two fundamental aspects of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC). First, we clarify the relationship between output and marginal cost. Second, for the NKPC in inflation–output space, we identify the key stochastic influences on inflation without recourse to ad hoc cost or excess demand shocks. The econometric implementation of this clarified NKPC, which evolves strictly according news on the stream of future marginal costs, allows us jointly to derive inflation as a forecast of future variables. Our approach clarifies the empirical successes and failures of the NKPC and allows us to provide new aggregate evidence on the degree of price rigidity in the UK economy.     

Output gap measurement and the New Keynesian Phillips curve for China

The New Keynesian Phillips curve implies that the output gap, the deviation of the actual output from its natural level due to nominal rigidities, drives the dynamics of inflation relative to expected inflation and lagged inflation. This paper exploits the empirical success of the New Keynesian Phillips curve in explaining China's inflation dynamics with a new measure of the output gap. We estimate the output gap using the Bayesian multivariate Beveridge–Nelson decomposition method, based on a multivariate dynamic model featuring distinct interactions among inflation, money, and real output in China. The empirical results using quarterly data spanning 1979–2010 show that the new measure of the output gap outperforms the traditional measures in fitting the New Keynesian Phillips curve. This result provides useful insights for inflation dynamics and monetary policy analysis in China.     

公众预期、需求冲击与通货膨胀——兼论通胀持久性的地区差异

本文基于具有微观基础的混合式新凯恩斯菲利普斯曲线模型,利用1985-2009年的省际面板数据,分析了预期因素、需求冲击及产出缺口与通货膨胀之间的动态过程及其地区差异。研究发现：总体上,无论是适应性预期还是理性预期对当期通货膨胀都有较强的推动作用;作为需求冲击的居民消费支出、固定资本形成以及产出缺口对通货膨胀都具有正向拉动作用。从通货膨胀持久性的地区差异上看,西部地区的通胀持续性最长,中部最短。     

产出缺口与中国地区通货膨胀

借鉴开放经济条件下新凯恩斯混合菲利普斯曲线,采用中国省际面板数据,构建一个包含本地区产出缺口、国内其他地区产出缺口和国外产出缺口的三缺口通货膨胀模型,实证分析产出缺口对中国地区通货膨胀的影响,同时分东部和中西部考察区域差异。实证研究结论表明,国内外产出缺口显著影响我国地区通货膨胀。较之中西部地区更多受到国内产出缺口的影响,东部地区则更多受到国外产出缺口的冲击。而且,国内地区间的通货膨胀压力传导在东部地区较中西部更明显。另外,政府的反需求管理措施存在时滞,且政策调控主要降低了本地区产出缺口形成的通货膨胀压力。     

Globalization and inflation: A threshold investigation

We use a threshold methodology to investigate the importance of non-linear effects in the analysis of the inflation globalization hypothesis. Accounting for potential non-linearities in the Phillips Curve, we show that trade openness is not rejected as a threshold variable for the effects of domestic and foreign slack on inflation in many advanced economies, and we find a switch of the output gap slopes from one regime to the other that is consistent with the key predictions of the inflation globalization hypothesis. For some countries the threshold Phillips Curve model also leads to improvements in out-of-sample forecast over the linear Phillips models, especially at longer horizons. Contrary to most of the previous literature which ignores such non-linearities, our new approach provides some interesting empirical evidence supportive of the effect globalization has on a country’s inflation dynamics.     

A graphical representation of an estimated DSGE model

We write a New Keynesian model as an aggregate demand curve and an aggregate supply curve, relating inflation to output growth. The graphical representation shows how structural shocks move aggregate demand and supply simultaneously. We estimate the curves on US data from 1948 to 2010 and study two recessions: the 2001 recession and the Great Recession of 2008–2009. The Great Recession is explained by a collapse of aggregate demand driven by adverse preference and permanent technology shocks, and expectations of low inflation.     

The macroeconomic impact of the nixon wage and price controls: A general equilibrium approach

This paper empirically estimates the effects of the Nixon Wage and Price Controls using a general equilibrium macroeconomic model which allows for interaction of prices, wages, aggregate demand, real output, and interest rates. Results confirm earlier findings: the controls had only brief, downward effects on measured inflation which were reversed by the end of 1973. Even before the end of 1973, controls were having adverse effects on prices, output and interest rates. Furthermore, there is evidence that controls, coupled with expansive monetary policy, can lead to economic conditions that are more serious than those existing prior to the imposition of the controls.     

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXCHANGE RATE APPRECIATION AND AGGREGATE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES

The paper examines the effects of exchange rate depreciation on real output and price in a sample of 11 developing countries in the Middle East. The theoretical model decomposes movements in the exchange rate into anticipated and unanticipated components. Unanticipated currency fluctuations determine aggregate demand through exports, imports, and the demand for domestic currency, and determine aggregate supply through the cost of imported intermediate goods. The evidence indicates that the supply channel attributed to anticipated exchange rate appreciation results in limited effects on output growth and price inflation. Consistent with theory's predictions, unanticipated appreciation of the exchange rate appears more significant with varying effects on output growth and price inflation across developing countries.     

Unemployment–inflation trade-offs in OECD countries

Inflation and unemployment reduce welfare of individuals and should be as low as possible in any economy. Cointegration and Granger causality tests suggest that there are long run relations between these two variables among the OECD economies. While rates of unemployment vary significantly among these economies, rates of inflation have stabilised at lower rates as a result of inflation targeting policies adopted in them during the last two decades. The Phillips curve phenomena are still empirically significant for 28 out of 35 of these OECD economies in country specific regressions; in fixed and random effect panel data models and in a panel VAR model for 1990:1 to 2014:4. Country specific supply curves and Okun curves are consistent to thin Phillips curve relations. Leftward shifts in the Beveridge and Phillips curves require labour market reforms balancing between job creations and destructions. Complementing macro stimulations by microeconomic structural and institutional reforms can bring efficiency in bargaining for wages and employment among firms and workers to make unemployment–inflation trade-offs more significant and relevant in these economies.     

Estimating Europe’s natural rates

This article estimates potential output, the natural rate of unemployment, and the core inflation rate using aggregated euro area data. The empirical model consists of a Phillips curve linking inflation to unemployment. An Okun-type relationship is used to link the output gap to cyclical unemployment. The model further accounts for new developments in unobserved component models by allowing (i) for correlation between shocks to the natural rates and the corresponding gaps and (ii) structural breaks in the drift of potential output and the natural rate of unemployment.     

Monetary policy through the ‘credit-cost channel’: Italy and Germany pre- and post-EMU

We present an empirical analysis of the ‘Credit-Cost Channel’ (CCC) of monetary policy transmission. This channel combines bank credit supply and interest rates on loans as a cost to firms. The thrust of the CCC is that it makes both aggregate demand and aggregate supply dependent on monetary policy. As a consequence (1) credit market conditions (e.g. risk spreads) are important sources and indicators of macroeconomic shocks, (2) the real effects of monetary policy are larger and persistent. We have applied the Cointegrated Vector Autoregression (CVAR) econometric methodology to Italy and Germany in the ‘hard’ EMS period and in the European Monetary Union (EMU) period. The short-run and long-run effects of the CCC are detectable for both countries in both periods. Simulation of the estimated model also confirms that inflation-targeting by way of inter-bank rate control stabilizes inflation through structural shifts of the stochastic equilibrium paths of both inflation and the output.     

Inflation and output growth uncertainty in individual survey expectations

This paper studies uncertainty using the ECB Survey of Professional Forecasters’ data. Both inflation and real GDP growth forecasts at the micro level are considered. Our analysis indicates that individual inflation uncertainty is closely related to output growth uncertainty. Individual forecasters seem to behave according to an uncertainty-augmented hybrid specification of the New Keynesian Phillips curve. We also find evidence that inflation uncertainty has a negative impact on economic activity by lowering output growth, boosting inflation and reducing the price-sensitiveness of aggregate supply.     

Comparing alternative Phillips curve specifications: European results with survey-based expectations

This article examines inflation dynamics in Europe. Econometric specification tests with pooled European data are used to compare the empirical performance of the New Classical, New Keynesian and Hybrid specifications of the Phillips curve. Instead of imposing any specific form of expectations formation, direct measures, i.e. Consensus Economics survey data are used to proxy economic agents’ inflation expectations. According to the results, the New Classical Phillips curve has satisfactory statistical properties. Moreover, the purely forward-looking New Keynesian Phillips curve is clearly outperformed by the New Classical and Hybrid Phillips curves. We interpret our results as indicating that the European inflation process is not purely forward looking and inflation cannot instantaneously adjust to changes in expectations. Consequently, even allowing for possible nonrationality in expectations results in a lagged inflation term entering the New Keynesian Phillips curve for inflation dynamics in Europe.     

Does money have a role in the inflation process? Evidence from Australia

Inflation, defined as a sustained increase in the price level, is considered a monetary phenomenon, as it can be explained within the framework of money‐demand and money‐supply relationships. In the extant literature, money growth is shown to remain causally related to inflation across countries and over time, irrespective of the exchange rate regime and stability of the money‐demand function. Nevertheless, emerging literature suggests a diminishing role of money in the conduct of monetary policy for price stability, especially under inflation targeting. Monetary policy in Australia under inflation targeting since 1993 is an example of policy that denies a relationship between money growth and inflation. The proposition that money does not matter insofar as inflation is concerned seems odd in both theory and the best‐practice monetary policy for price stability. This paper uses annual data for the period 1970–2017 and quarterly data for the period 1970Q1–2015Q1. It deploys both the Johansen cointegration approach and the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration approach to investigate for Australia whether money, real output, prices and the exchange rate (non‐stationary variables) maintain the long‐run price‐level relationship that the classical monetary theory suggests in the presence of such stationary variables as the domestic and foreign interest rates. As expected, the empirical findings for Australia are consistent with the classical long‐run price‐level relationship between money, real output, prices and the exchange rate. The error‐correction model of inflation confirms the presence of a cointegral relationship among these variables; it also provides strong evidence of a short‐run causal relationship between money supply growth and inflation. On the basis of a priori theoretical predictions and empirical findings, the paper draws the conclusion that the monetary aggregate and its growth rate matter insofar as inflation is concerned, irrespective of the strategy of monetary policy for price stability.     

3F冲击对中国通货膨胀的影响研究

本文选取全球通货膨胀率、国际能源价格、国际食品价格作为3F外部冲击的三个影响因素,应用扩展的菲利普斯曲线实证分析1981年至2011年的外部冲击因素与我国通胀率的长期关系,然后使用VAR模型对这些外部因素所产生的冲击效果做进一步探究。实证结果表明：短期内,全球通货膨胀率是导致国内价格水平上升的主要原因;随着时间的推移,国际能源价格与国际食品价格对于国内价格水平的影响力逐渐增强,且在中长期成为较为重要的影响因素。而通胀预期与产出缺口则是中长期影响物价的最主要因素。因此,为了抵御外部冲击对我国通货膨胀的影响,管理我国对于本国及全球通胀的预期、构建相应的价格缓冲机制、实施农产品进口渠道多元化战略等均是较为有效的手段。与此同时,也要防止经济过快增长,抑制由于投资需求带来的通货膨胀。