Restaurant Prices and the Mexican Peso

Of prime interest to border economies is exchange rate performance and currency valuation. Commonly used tools for this task include purchasing power parity (PPP) nominal benchmarks, and inflation-adjusted trade-weighted indices. The latter have the advantage of relying on commonly available international macroeconomic data but overlook microeeonomic information that may offer additional insight to issues surrounding exchange rate policy debates. Other efforts have utilized small samples of international product price comparisons to shed light on currency valuation questions. This paper develops one such tool by repeated sampling of prices charged for identical menu items sold at restaurant franchises in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. A battery of statistical tests indicate that the international currency value of the peso consistently differed from the exchange rate implied by the border region restaurant price ratios in 1997, 1998, and 1999.     

玉米价格决定着肉食价格

由于美国中西部地区的洪涝灾害天气对玉米的播种面积和单产造成影响，芝加哥商品交易所的玉米期货连创新高,并带领大豆、小麦等品种集体上涨。在能源价格高位盘整之际，玉米的领涨使得振荡两个多月的农产品期货再度成为市场关注焦点。由于美国产区天气糟糕、美国玉米库存降至历史低点，以及原油高价带来的玉米能源化作用的增强，玉米已经被视为短期内具有最良好基本面的期货品种。日前，芝加哥商品交易所的近月合约涨幅已经达到33％。     

玉米价格决定着肉食价格

由于美国中西部地区的洪涝灾害天气对玉米的播种面积和单产造成影响,芝加哥商品交易所的玉米期货连创新高,并带领大豆、小麦等品种集体上涨。在能源价格高位盘整之际,玉米的领涨使得振荡两个多月的农产品期货再度成为市场关注焦点。由于美国产区天气糟糕、美国玉米库存降至历史低     

货币政策对股票价格行为的影响实证分析

文章以影响股票价格的理论为基础,采用现代计量技术,采用2005年1月至2007年6月的月度时间序列数据,研究了汇率、存款准备金率以及利率、货币供应量等宏观经济因素对股票价格的影响。从2005年6月以来我国A股市场股票价格的持续上涨,其主要原因是经济的高速增长、人民币升值以及充足的货币供应量;而加息与提高存款准备金率对股票价格变化的影响有限。     

The Response of Trade Prices to Exchange Rate Changes

The present paper examines export and import pricing behavior following exchange rate changes in small, open economies. Using a monopolistic model, this study reveals that export and import prices should change but not in proportion to exchange rate movements. The policy implication of the results is that the pricing to market phenomenon could be a critical factor in explaining the evolution of the external trade balance with strategic interaction present in the case of prices on tradable goods. Consequently, the use of an exchange rate policy in the case of external imbalances should be a central issue within the broader context of how market structure and conduct affect the optimal traded goods prices.     

国内价格的汇率传递性——基于VAR模型的实证研究

本文利用VAR模型研究了我国国内价格的汇率传递性。VAR模型的脉冲反应函数显示,存在人民币汇率对国内价格的不完全传递性,但是,传递弹性极低,进口价格指数的汇率传递弹性要强于消费价格指数的汇率传递弹性,且进口价格指数向消费价格指数传导逐渐衰减。因此,通过汇率升值来抑制通胀效果并不理想,从紧的货币政策才是医治通胀的良药。     

Exchange Rates and Prices under Processing Trade: A Macroeconomic Analysis

In an economy dominated by labor-intensive processing trade, such as China, real exchange rate appreciation can possibly increase rather than decrease net exports. As the import content of processed exports (a proxy for dependence on processing trade) increases in its continuum, the stable equilibrium for the exchange rate and price level eventually yields to a saddle-point equilibrium. Unless the initial inflation (or deflation) rate is uniquely moderate at a given exchange rate, either the depreciation-inflation spiral or the appreciation-deflation spiral can dominate. Monetary and fiscal policies can help a processing-trade dependent country in structural transition from excessive engagement in processing trade (the saddle-point equilibrium) to a more sustainable and balanced trade structure.     

Exchange Rate Changes and Export Prices in a Small Semi-Open Economy

This paper analyses the reaction of export prices to exchange rate changes in Nigeria. The major proposition examined in the study is that, exchange rate changes are not reflected fully in the prices of the country's exports. The analysis suggests that manufactured export firms in the country may have been price discriminating between domestic and export markets; only about 93% of exchange rate changes occurring in the period 1986 to 1995 is shown as reflected in the domestic price of manufactured export. However, this result is qualified by the fact that, over 75% of the data analysed were generated.     

Prices,output and the trade balance in Iran

This paper analyses the impact of the rise in oil prices on domestic inflation, the trade balance, and output growth in Iran for the period 1960–1977. A macro framework is developed in which the domestic spending of oil revenues results in higher output, inflation and imports. Our results indicate that, although the overall growth remained high, the rapid increase in oil revenues in 1973–1974 was mainly reflected in higher inflation and higher imports. In the absence of any exchange rate adjustment, there was a sharp deterioration in the competitive position of the non-oil traded sector.     

人民币汇率变动对中欧出口价格的传递效应

本文探讨了人民币升值对向欧元区出口价格的汇率传递效应及其对中欧贸易顺差的调节作用。作者利用1999年1月至2006年12月的月度数据,在SITC一位数商品分类层面上,考察了人民币/欧元汇率变动对中国向欧元区出口价格的影响。实证结果显示,不同类商品的出口价格汇率传递弹性存在较大差异,汇率变动引起中国向欧元区出口价格较大幅度的调整,人民币升值对占中欧出口总额一半以上的第6类和第7类商品出口没有抑制作用。因此,人民币升值对中欧贸易顺差的调节作用有限。     

Exchange Rate Cycles and Canada/US Manufacturing Prices

The paper examines the industry characteristics that are related to the shifts in competitiveness, measured as the relative common-currency price ratios between Canadian and US manufacturing prices. We find that relative input costs and relative productivity growth are the two most important factors influencing changes in relative Canada/US prices. Competitive pressures emanating from trade are important determinants of the extent to which relative productivity differences are passed through to cross-country relative prices. We also find that the magnitude of domestic market competition and export intensity affects the short-run relative price shifts over the cycle of exchange rate. JEL no. E30, F31, L60     

Dynamic Links Between Unexpected Exchange Rate Variation, Prices, and International Trade

This paper investigates dynamic interrelations between exchange rate uncertainty, international trade, and trading competitiveness in prices, using UK data. The empirical results derived from vector autoregressive (VAR) models show that a shock to exchange rate volatility negatively affects trade volumes, and such negative effects are greater than the effects on trade price levels. JEL Classification Numbers: F14, F31, F41     

Pump Prices and Oil Prices: A Tale of Two Directions

It has been argued that retail gasoline prices adjust more quickly to crude oil price increases than to price decreases. We investigate this issue using the statewide data on weekly retail gasoline prices in the United States between January 2000 and June 2007. Our analysis does not confirm the prediction that gasoline prices adjust more quickly to price increases in crude oil prices. On the contrary, the results suggest that in some geographic areas gasoline prices could change faster when crude oil prices decrease. These findings suggest that a national or a one size fits all energy policy for the United States may be misguided.

Royal African Company Share Prices during the South Sea Bubble

Price bubbles provide a unique opportunity to test whether investors act rationally and have sufficient knowledge of the economic environment in which they trade. We focus our attention on the 1720 South Sea bubble episode as experienced by a company not involved in governmental debt financing—the Royal African Company. Following the example of the South Sea Company, the Royal African Company lent its funds to equityholders at a preferential rate. Recognizing this benefit along with the announced dividends explains a large portion of the bubble. Furthermore, the unexplained residual does not behave like an exploding bubble, casting doubt that speculative excess motivated market participants in 1720. Our findings are indeed consistent with investor rationality, and the unexplained residual suggests that we are missing information that was available to the British financial market in 1720.     

Prices and industrial transformation

Abstract

One of the contradictions of neo-classical economic theory concerns its view of relative prices. On the one hand it is relative prices that determine the market's equilibrium position and decide what transactions will take place. On the other hand, the pattern of relative prices, or expressed differently the price structure, has been regarded as more or less immutable. Variations in relative prices have been considered short-term phenomena, after which, in time, an adaptation has taken place which has restored the initial situation. The same line of thought was also held by Wesley Mitchell, who in the dispersion of relative prices found a reflection of business cycles, but he maintained that the price system is “yet stable in the essential balance of its interrelations”.¹ F.C. Mills cited Mitchell as his authority in his comprehensive work The Behavior of Prices, and although he felt compelled to raise objections to the inference that relative prices varied rhythmically with the business cycle, he still considered that there was a limit to change in relative prices, i.e. the price structure had a fundamental stability.²     

Exchange Rates,Domestic Prices,and Central Bank Actions: Recent U.S. Experience

Central banks that are primarily concerned with the behavior of prices will use monetary policy to try to insulate prices from exchange rate changes. Prices then appear unresponsive to changes in the exchange rate. The observed relationships between prices and the exchange rate will reflect central bank actions instead of the underlying relationship between exchange rates and prices. This paper explicitly recognizes the role that policy plays in determining the observable relationships between exchange rates and prices, and in so doing, it illustrates how the underlying relationships can be unraveled. Using three different empirical approaches, we examine the recent experience of the United States. We find that the prices of various nondurable goods, and even of some services, respond modestly to the exchange rate, and we find that the responses emerge most clearly when the role of monetary policy is explicitly considered. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the Federal Reserve acts to mitigate the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on domestic prices.     

汇率变动对我国进口产品价格的传递效应——基于细分商品层面的分析

本文在汇率价格传递理论分析的基础上,采用自回归分布滞后模型在细分商品层面就人民币汇率变动对进口商品价格的传递进行了研究。研究发现,汇率传递的大小在我国不同行业的不同商品间有较大差异,我国进口商品价格存在不完全传递现象,甚至部分商品存在逆传递。对于原材料类产品,汇率对价格的影响是相当迅速的,随着深加工的进行影响会出现时滞。     

垃圾处理设施对住宅价格影响的Meta分析

基于16篇垃圾处理设施对住宅价格影响的实证研究进行Meta分析,探讨垃圾处理设施引起周边住宅价格波动的影响因素,并分析这些因素具体影响作用和方向。研究结果显示：整体上,垃圾处理设施对周围住宅存在贬值效应,住宅平均贬值幅度为10.4%;距离变量、建筑变量、区位特征、邻里特征和方法变量对垃圾处理设施对周边住宅价格波动幅度具有显著影响。通过研究为垃圾处理设施负外部性的管理提供理论依据。     

房价盛世危言

搜索中国所有的商品与要素市场,几乎没有哪一个市场能像房地产市场那样残酷而贪婪地吞噬着百姓手中可怜的剩余资本,而在政府企图规制与诱导的目标市场中,更没有哪一个市场能像房地产市场那样令决策层感到心力憔悴.在一轮又一轮房价涨停行情的肉博之中,完全丧失话语权和谈判能力的消费者经历了一次又一次的利益流失的痛苦折磨,而宏观调控工具与手段也随之可能被历练得更加刚毅与成熟.