Nominal uncertainty,real uncertainty and macroeconomic performance in a time-varying asymmetric framework: Implications for monetary policy

This study examines the dynamic causal links and volatility spillovers of inflation, output growth and their uncertainties in four South Asian countries, namely, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka by utilizing asymmetric GARCH family models. Our empirical evidence supports a number of important conclusions. There is an overwhelming support for Friedman-Ball hypothesis of positive inflation-uncertainty trade-off for all countries excluding India and Sri Lanka. The Cukierman-Meltzer’s idea that inflation uncertainty generates inflation, hold for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka only and the Holland’s hypothesis of negative influence of inflation uncertainty on level inflation is supported by India only. The positive influence of output uncertainty on inflation (Devereux (1989) hypothesis) is supported by all countries excluding Bangladesh while nominal uncertainty (real uncertainty) has negative (positive) effect on output growth in Pakistan (Bangladesh). Output growth is reducing real uncertainty in all countries excluding Sri Lanka and nominal uncertainty in Pakistan only. There is significant negative relationship between inflation and output growth for Pakistan only while real uncertainty is positively (negatively) related with nominal uncertainty in India (Bangladesh). The estimated results are almost robust with the simultaneous estimation procedure for testing the main hypotheses. In general, there is asymmetric effect and persistence of the GARCH parameters for all countries. The study suggests that the concerned central banks should pay more attention to the effects of macroeconomic uncertainty and should focus their monetary policy strategy on stabilizing both output growth and inflation.     

Inflation,Output Growth,and Their Uncertainties: Empirical Evidence for a Causal Relationship from European Emerging Economies

In this paper, we analyze the causality among inflation, output growth, and their uncertainties in all European countries with emerging economies. For these countries, high uncertainty regarding economic growth during the current economic and financial crisis that started in 2008 caused their governments to increase their efforts to sustain growth, and to maintain a low level of inflation. Of the twelve possible hypotheses regarding the causal relationships among inflation, output growth, and their uncertainties, we consider five relationships for which we find strong theoretical arguments and empirical evidence in the literature. The empirical evidence strongly supports the Friedman-Ball hypothesis that inflation Granger-causes inflation uncertainty. For the other four tested hypotheses, fewer significant causal relationships are obtained.     

Inflation–growth nexus: some bivariate EGARCH evidence for Bangladesh

This study examines the inflation–growth nexus for Bangladesh over the period 1976–2009 in a bivariate exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity in mean (EGARCH-M) model. This work finds that both growth and inflation adversely affect each other in a lagged fashion in Bangladesh. Inflation uncertainty appears to be conducive to growth for the country, contradicting the Friedman hypothesis. Growth uncertainty, which is also thought to be inimical to growth, affects the average growth rate positively. Thus, the Central Bank should shift its target from controlling inflation uncertainty to reducing a rise in inflation to ensure faster growth in Bangladesh.     

Interwar Inflation,Unexpected Inflation,and Output Growth

Interwar macroeconomic history is a natural place to look for evidence on the correlation between output growth and inflation or unexpected inflation. We apply time‐series methods to measure unexpected inflation for more than 20 countries using both retail and wholesale prices. There is a significant, positive correlation between output growth and inflation for the entire period. There is little evidence that this correlation is caused by an underlying role for unexpected inflation. For wholesale price inflation in particular, the output declines associated with deflations were larger than the output increases associated with inflations of the same scale.     

The housing price boom of the late 1990s: Did inflation targeting matter?

The recent boom in the housing markets of most developed economies has spurred criticism that inflation targeting central banks may have neglected the build-up of financial imbalances. This paper provides a formal empirical test of such claims, using a standard program evaluation methodology to control for a possible bias due to self-selection into inflation targeting. We consider 17 industrial economies over the period 1980–2007, among which nine countries have targeted inflation at some point. We find robust evidence of a significant positive effect of inflation targeting on real house price growth and on the house price-to-rent ratio.     

中国经济波动的产出和通胀效应 ——基于供求冲击相关的SVAR模型分析

本文结合产出缺口-通胀形式的菲利普斯曲线（AS曲线）,构建了产出缺口和通 胀率的SVAR模型,并将识别结果同B-Q约束条件下的识别结果进行比较,以此来探究我国近 三十多年来宏观经济系统中需求冲击和供给冲击对产出和通胀动态的效应。主要得出以下结 论：第一,供求冲击之间高度相关;第二,需求冲击是我国通胀波动的决定性因素,并且存在 持久稳定的效应。第三,供给冲击是我国经济增长的绝对主导力量。第四,我国存在相对陡峭 的菲利普斯曲线（AS曲线）。第五,产出缺口与同比CPI对我国经济状况的拟合效果最好。     

Exchange rate pass-through in emerging countries: Do the inflation environment,monetary policy regime and central bank behavior matter?

In this paper, we estimate the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to import and consumer prices for a sample of 14 emerging countries over the 1994Q1-2015Q3 period. To this end, we augment the traditional bivariate relationship between the nominal effective exchange rate and inflation by accounting for monetary stability proxied by the inflation environment, monetary policy regime and central bank behavior. We show that both the level and volatility of inflation, as well as adopting an inflation target or the transparency of monetary policy decisions clearly reduce ERPT to consumer prices. However, uncertainty about domestic monetary policy seems less relevant in explaining the pass-through to the price of imports.     

The transmission of inflation in a small economy: an empirical analysis of the influence of US monetary disturbances on Canadian inflation, 1962–1980

The paper examines the transmission of inflation in Canada during 1962–1980 using an empirical methodology which is very flexible in determining the direction of casuality and the shape of distributed lag effects. The paper finds that US monetary growth exerted an important effect on Canadian inflation during both fixed and flexible exchange-rate periods. The evidence also shows that Canadian monetary growth has remained linked to US monetary growth under the present flexible exchange-rate regime.     

The impact of banking sector stability on the real economy

This article studies the relationship between the degree of banking sector stability and the subsequent evolution of real output growth and inflation. Adopting a panel VAR methodology for a sample of 18 OECD countries, we find a positive link between banking sector stability and real output growth. This finding is predominantly driven by periods of instability rather than by very stable periods. In addition, we show that an unstable banking sector increases uncertainty about future output growth. No clear link between banking sector stability and inflation seems to exist. We then argue that the link between banking stability and real output growth can be used to improve output growth forecasts. Using Fed forecast errors, we show that banking sector stability (instability) results in a significant underestimation (overestimation) of GDP growth in the subsequent quarters.     

Money and inflation in the euro area: A case for monetary indicators?

This paper examines inflation indicators for the euro area by studying the relationship between inflation, output, money and interest rates, using data spanning 1980–2001. The central finding is that both the output gap and the real money gap (the difference between the real money stock and the long-run equilibrium real money stock) contain considerable information regarding future inflation. In contrast, the Eurosystem's money-growth indicator (the difference between nominal money growth and a reference value), the prominent “first pillar” in its monetary strategy, contains little information about future inflation, and no information beyond that contained in the output and real money gaps. The predictive performance of the output gap has improved compared to that in a previous version of this paper, most likely because of better estimation methods.     

What drives asymmetric dependence structure of asset return comovements?

We examine the determinants of return comovements of three different asset classes and provide critical insights on the key macroeconomic and non-macroeconomic factors which drive the asset return comovements during economic contraction and expansion regimes. We show that amongst the macroeconomic factors, interest rate and inflation have significant effect on the return comovements during the economic contraction regime whilst risk aversion significantly affects the return comovements during the economic expansion regime. The non-macroeconomic factors, output uncertainty, bond illiquidity and depth of recession contribute significantly in explaining the variations of return comovements for all asset pairs during both economic contraction and expansion periods except for real estate-based portfolios. Our results are robust to alternative model specification that uses regime switching MGARCH model.     

Inflation risk and international asset returns

We show that inflation risk is priced in international asset returns. We analyze inflation risk in a framework that encompasses the International Capital Asset Pricing Model (ICAPM) of Adler and Dumas (1983). In contrast to the extant empirical literature on the ICAPM, we relax the assumption that inflation rates are constant. We estimate and test a conditional version of the model for the G5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US) over the period 1975–1998 and find evidence of statistically and economically significant prices of inflation risk (in addition to priced nominal exchange rate risk). Our results imply a rejection of the restrictions imposed by the ICAPM. In an extension of our analysis to 2003, we show that even after the termination of nominal exchange rate fluctuations in the euro area in 1999, differences in inflation rates across countries entail non-trivial real exchange rate risk premia.     

Exchange market pressures during the financial crisis: A Bayesian model averaging evidence

In this paper, we examine whether pre-crisis leading indicators help explain pressures on the exchange rate (and its volatility) during the global financial crisis. We use a unique data set that covers 149 countries and 58 indicators, and estimation techniques that are robust to model uncertainty. Our results are threefold: First and foremost, we find that price stability plays a pivotal role as a determinant of exchange rate pressures. More specifically, the currencies of countries that experienced higher inflation prior to the crisis tend to be more affected in times of stress. Second, we investigate potential effects that vary with the level of pre-crisis inflation. In this vein, our results reveal that an increase in domestic savings reduces the severity of pressures in countries that experienced a low-inflation environment prior to the crisis. Finally, we find evidence of the mitigating effects of international reserves on the volatility of exchange rate pressures.     

The Effect of Inflation on Wage Inequality: A North–South Monetary Model of Endogenous Growth with International Trade

This study analyzes the effects of inflation on intra- and intercounty wage inequality, specialization, and growth, using a North–South endogenous growth model with international trade and money. The relationship between inflation and intracountry wage inequality depends on firms' credit constraints and on the inflation levels. Our results indicate that inflation decreases specialization in skilled production and increases intracountry wage inequality. Moreover, increasing inflation in the South increases the wage inequality gap between countries. Theoretical results are confirmed through calibration and match with existing empirical evidence.     

通胀—增长权衡和中国菲利普斯曲线的平坦化

近年来发达经济体出现了菲利普斯曲线平坦化现象,但有关中国的研究尚缺乏共识。本文基于实证和理论分析,系统研究了中国菲利普斯曲线的平坦化问题。首先,结合货币政策冲击和月度SVAR框架,发现通胀的响应程度在2010年后大幅下降。由于证据显示总需求曲线并未平坦化,因此通胀响应弱化可解读为菲利普斯曲线的平坦化。数据显示,菲利普斯曲线平坦化与生产率增长放缓同时发生,因此,本文在标准DSGE模型中引入纵向内生增长渠道,该渠道基于研发投入和知识资本积累,从而使生产率内生于经济周期。研究发现:(1)内生增长渠道放大了需求冲击对产出的影响,但缩小了需求冲击对通胀的影响;(2)内生增长渠道改变通胀和增长之间的替代关系,但不改变边际成本向通胀的传导。分段估计显示,2010年后,通胀和增长的关系弱化是边际成本传导变弱和内生增长渠道变强共同作用的结果。本文认为,由于菲利普斯曲线的平坦化,中央银行应继续坚持稳增长和就业优先战略,关注但不必过于担心由此引发的通胀压力。     

The inflation–output nexus: Empirical evidence from India,South Africa,and Brazil

In this paper we study the relationship between output and inflation for India, South Africa and Brazil, using the EGARCH model. For India and South Africa, we find evidence of: (1) the Cukierman and Meltzer hypothesis that inflation volatility raises inflation; (2) the Friedman hypothesis that inflation raises inflation volatility; and (3) the Black hypothesis that output volatility raises output growth, and that output volatility reduces inflation. For Brazil, we do not find any evidence of a systematic relationship between inflation and output growth.     

The Long‐Run Fisher Effect: Can It Be Tested?

In this paper, I provide a plausible explanation as to why past studies have been unable to find support for the long-run Fisher effect. My argument is that exogenous shocks to the inflation rates in industrialized economies have not produced the permanent change to inflation necessary for testing the Fisher effect. Instead of finding a nonstationary, unit-root process for inflation like previous Fisher effect studies, here each country's inflation rate is found to follow a mean-reverting, fractionally integrated, long-memory process. Applying a bivariate, maximum likelihood estimator to a multivariate, fractionally integrated model of inflation and nominal interest, I find that the estimated inflation rates in 17 developed countries are highly persistent, fractionally integrated, mean-reverting processes with order of integration parameters significantly less than one. Since a permanent change to inflation has not occurred, a test of whether a permanent change to inflation affects the nominal interest rate one-for-one will be uninformative as to the truth or fallacy of the Fisher effect hypothesis.     

金融发展、汇改最优次序与长期经济增长--基于118个经济体的面板模型的分析

本文构建由金融发展、资本开放、汇率制度与产出增长组成的理论模型,选取世界上118个经济体1972-2016年的宏观数据,综合运用动态面板、面板门槛与面板IV模型进行实证分析。本文得出主要结论为:第一,在汇率制度弹性对长期经济增长的边际影响中,金融发展水平呈显著为正的调节效应;第二,对于金融发展水平较高的国家,汇率制度弹性在资本项目开放度与长期经济增长之间存在显著正向的调节效应;第三,在金融发展水平较高时,对外贸易开放度在汇率制度弹性与长期经济增长之间存在显著为正的中介效应。借鉴历史发展经验,本文归纳出"先发展国内金融市场,再开放浮动汇率,最后加强资本开放"的汇改最优次序,为我国克服汇率制度改革难点、推进资本项目开放、维持经济基本面稳定增长提出合理化政策建议。     

Does inflation targeting really make a difference? Evaluating the treatment effect of inflation targeting in seven industrial countries

We evaluate the treatment effect of inflation targeting in seven industrial countries that adopted this policy in the 1990s. To address the self-selection problem of policy adoption, we make use of a variety of propensity score matching methods recently developed in the treatment effect literature. Our results show that inflation targeting has no significant effects on either inflation or inflation variability in these seven countries. Further evidence from long-term nominal interest rates and income velocity of money also supports the window-dressing view of inflation targeting.