Euro-Area Inflation: does the Balassa–Samuelson effect matter?

The paper argues that the Balassa–Samuelson effect is of little importance for the inflation target of the ECB. First, econometric tests of the Balassa–Samuelson effect suggest that the most robust link is found between relative sectoral deflators and relative unit labour costs; i.e. a link that accounts for an incomplete wage pass-through. For the (change in the) HICP — the target of the ECB — and its components additional factors seem to cause divergent international and sectoral developments. Second, countries with high productivity growth in industry may experience a real devaluation in the sector of tradable goods which counters the real appreciation resulting from a relative increase in service prices. It follows that the difference in productivity growth and thus the difference in the size of the relative price adjustment between countries does not have unambiguous consequences for the overall inflation rate, and as such can thus not justify an inflation target well above zero.

Implications of Monetary Union for Catching-up Member States

We examine the implications of monetary union for macroeconomic stabilization in catching-up participating countries. We allow member states’ supply conditions to differ, especially with regard to sectoral characteristics. Sectoral productivity shocks of the type associated with the Balassa–Samuelson effect tend to hamper the stabilization properties of a currency union. In the face of aggregate supply disturbances, the stabilization costs of renouncing monetary autonomy diminish with a steeper supply curve (as induced by higher trade openness) and—barring idiosyncratic shocks—with a larger reference country size, more homogeneous supply slopes and a higher preference for price stability.

Dutch Disease Scare in Kazakhstan: Is it real?

In this paper we explore the evidence that would establish that Dutch disease is at work in, or poses a threat to, the Kazakh economy. Assessing the mechanism by which fluctuations in the price of oil can damage non-oil manufacturing—and thus long-term growth prospects in an economy that relies heavily on oil production—we find that non-oil manufacturing has so far been spared the perverse effects of oil price increases from 1996 to 2005. The real exchange rate in the open sector has appreciated over the last couple of years, largely due to the appreciation of the nominal exchange rate. We analyze to what extent this appreciation is linked to movements in oil prices and oil revenues. Econometric evidence from the monetary model of the exchange rate and a variety of real exchange rate models show that the rise in the price of oil and in oil revenues might be linked to an appreciation of the U.S. dollar exchange rate of the oil and non-oil sectors. But appreciation is mainly limited to the real effective exchange rate for oil sector and is statistically insignificant for non-oil manufacturing.

Inflation in South Africa: An Assessment of Alternative Inflation Models

We consider the relative empirical performance of a range of inflation models for South Africa. Model coverage is of Phillips curve, New Keynesian Phillips curve, monetarist and structural models of inflation. Our core findings are that the single most robust covariate of inflation is unit labour cost. We further decompose unit labour cost into changes in the nominal wage and real labour productivity. The principal association is a strong positive relationship between inflation and nominal wages, while improvements in real labour productivity report only a relatively weak negative association with inflation. Supply‐side shocks also consistently report an association with inflation. As to demand‐side shocks, the output gap does not return a robust statistical association with inflation. Instead, it is growth in the money supply and government expenditure which return robust and theoretically consistent associations with inflationary pressure.     

当前澳门通货膨胀的原因及其趋势分析

本文通过对最近两年来澳门物价水平的深入分析，指出外部经济环境变化是通货膨胀的主因，内部需求过热则加剧了通货膨胀的程度，并在此基础上分析澳门未来物价水平的走势及相应的对策。     

中国财政赤字的通货膨胀效应

文章主要以1996年第1季度至2015年第3季度的居民消费价格指数CPI、财政赤字、利率和货币供应量的季度同比增长率等数据为基础,通过构建时变参数向量自回归(TVP-VAR) 模型,对我国财政赤字的通货膨胀效应进行了检验,并探讨了货币当局和财政当局的主导权归属问题。主要得出了二方面结论：一方面是现阶段财政赤字在短期内具有“凯恩斯效应”,而从长期看,既遵循“李嘉图等价”原理,又具有微弱的“挤入效应”;另一方面是财政当局虽占优于货币当局,但财政赤字需要配合货币政策才能影响价格水平。据此,向政府提出了“新常态”时期的政策建议,即政府在短期内可以通过赤字财政的方式诱导适度通胀来实现去库存,从供给侧引导经济增长,同时也要保持货币政策偏紧,增强人民银行的独立性,进一步优化财政收支结构。     

New Keynesian Explanations of Cyclical Movements in Aggregate Inflation and Regional Inflation Differentials

What determines the cyclical behavior of aggregate inflation and regional inflation differentials? The answer has strong implications for monetary policy and in Europe for the Stability and Growth Pact. In the United States, inflation rates move pro-cyclically, and across the Euro Area, inflation differentials are positively correlated with growth differentials. This suggests that demand shocks are the primary determinants of the cyclical behavior of aggregate inflation and regional inflation differentials. In this paper, we discuss New Keynesian explanations of these correlations, and we argue that demand shocks are either missing or inadequately modeled in the in typical New Keynesian model.     

The Impact of Political Instability on Inflation Volatility in Africa

This paper investigates whether political instability leads to volatile inflation using a panel of 49 African countries. The study uses novel measures of political instability, particularly the state failure index and state fragility index. In the field of political instability and inflation volatility, this is the first study to measure inflation volatility as the conditional variance of inflation estimated from GARCH (1, 1) model. Adopting the system‐generalized method of moments estimator for linear dynamic panel models for the sample period 1985‐2009, the study documents a positive statistically significant effect of political instability on inflation volatility.     

市场竞争、激励机制与国有企业生产率决定

本文用CASS数据实证检验了国有企业的主要改革措施对生产率的影响,研究结果表明非国有企业的发展带来的竞争、国有企业参与利润的分配、企业内部激励手段的运用和产量自主权、投资自主权的获得对生产率的增长都起到了积极的作用。这一结论在一定程度上肯定了我国国有企业改革的渐进式改革方式,仅就生产率增长而言,在不改变国有企业的产权归属的前提下,靠决策权力的下放和利益的再分配及市场竞争的压力也能达到预期的目的。     

Inflation and inflation uncertainty: The case of Cambodia,Lao PDR,and Vietnam

This paper studies the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty in Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam. Inflation uncertainty is estimated as the conditional variance in a family of generalized autoregressive heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models. This paper finds that inflation causes inflation uncertainty in these countries, which supports the argument of Friedman (1977). Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that inflation uncertainty causes inflation only in Lao PDR, which implies that Cukierman and Meltzer's (1986) argument can be supported in Lao PDR. This paper also investigates how inflation in the United States is related to inflation and inflation uncertainty in Indochina countries. The result shows that inflation positively responds to US inflation only in Cambodia.     

中国全要素生产率估计:1978-2006年

Solow残差法在计量全要素生产率时忽略了制度因素,为此本文在构建模型时增加制度虚拟变量。通过用修正后的模型估计中国1978年以采的全要素生产率,本文发现:1978年以来,中国的全要素生产率增长率和技术进步对经济增长的贡献都很显著;但1990年代中后期以来却在低位徘徊。文章认为,应该加强教育投入、切实推动生产要素在国内自由流动以及加快立法,以保证市场经济秩序的公平和公正。     

新兴市场经济国家通货膨胀发生概率与汇率制度选择——基于定性响应模型的实证研究

汇率制度选择问题是国际金融学研究领域的重要研究问题,选择适当的汇率制度对于处在转型过程中的新兴市场经济国家具有重要的现实意义。本文对23个新兴市场经济国家的460个样本建立了定性响应模型（Qualitative response model）,对这些国家1985—2004年间汇率制度与通胀发生概率二者之间的关系进行了实证分析,研究发现：固定汇率制度可以降低通胀发生的概率;模拟结果显示,如果我国实行固定汇率制度,通货膨胀发生的概率均明显低于同期对应的其他汇率制度下的概率;通货膨胀发生概率多次出现的阶段性高点与我国历次通货膨胀发生的时间段相吻合;2007年和2008年我国具有较高的发生通胀的可能性。目前,我国尚处于经济转型之中,应该继续维持固定汇率制度,以此作为反通胀的名义驻锚。     

Productivity response to reduction in trade barriers: evidence from Turkish manufacturing plants

We examine the effects of trade policy changes on the evolution of productivity in the Turkish manufacturing industry. Plant level productivities are estimated for the 1983–1996 period following the procedure of Olley and Pakes. Industry averages indicate that productivity gains are largest in import-competing industries with highest gains reaching 8% per year during periods of rapid decline in protection rates. We find that productivity improvements resulting from declining protection rates are statistically significant and economically important, especially in import-competing sectors. More importantly, productivity improvements due to declining protection rates increase with the plant size.

微腐败对企业生产率的影响——基于世界银行对143个国家企业调查数据的实证研究

文章利用世界银行对全球143个国家2002-2014年企业的调查数据,重点考察企业微腐败行为对企业生产率的影响。实证结果表明,在控制内生性问题的前提下,微腐败会显著降低企业生产率,一系列稳健性检验验证了结论的可靠性。此外,文章还重点探讨了微腐败影响企业生产率的机制,发现微腐败会显著抑制企业创新从而损害企业生产率。分子样本讨论发现,微腐败对私营企业、服务行业、腐败程度高地区以及经济欠发达地区的企业的生产率负面影响更大。     

1993-2005年广东农业生产率的变动与分解——基于Malmquist生产率指数的实证分析

本文使用非参数的Malmquist生产率指数方法,对广东省1993—2005年间农业全要素生产率（TFP）的变动趋势进行了考察,并把TFP的增长构成分解为技术进步、纯技术效率变化、规模效率变化三个部分。结果表明：13年间广东全省农业TFP的增长主要是由技术进步推动的,纯技术效率和规模效率的下降对TFP的增长造成了不利影响;农业TFP增长的地区水平差异显著,而且增长的结构也有所不同。最后是相应的政策建议。     

进口中间品质量与企业生产率:基于中国制造业企业的研究

文章基于2000-2006年中国工业企业数据和海关贸易数据,测算了进口中间品质量和企业全要素生产率,并深入分析了进口中间品产品质量对中国制造业企业全要素生产率的影响。多种计量方法的分析结果表明:进口中间品产品质量显著促进了企业生产率的提升。异质性分析的结果表明,进口中间品产品质量对加工贸易企业、外资企业的生产率提升作用显著大于其他贸易方式和所有制类型的企业;不管企业是从非OECD国家进口,还是从OECD国家进口,中间品产品质量的提升都可促进企业生产率的提高;相比高质量的进口中间品,低质量的进口中间品不能提高企业的生产率。进一步的分位数回归结果表明,相比高生产率企业,低生产率企业能够从进口中间品质量中获益更多,全面提高进口中间品质量可以自动地缩小企业间生产率水平的差距。     

异质性企业、出口与“生产率悖论”——基于2007年中国制造业企业层面的证据

在异质性企业贸易理论提出以后,生产率就被看作是决定企业出口的重要因素,只有生产率高的企业才有能力选择出口.不过对中国企业的经验研究发现,中国出口企业的生产率的均值要低于非出口企业,即存在“生产率悖论”.本文使用2007年中国制造业企业样本,运用两种方法,其一是计算比较生产率法,其二是运用统计方法检验出口企业与非出口企业的生产率差异.为了结论的准确性,我们分行业、分地区、分企业注册类型、分企业规模检验.最后检验出口企业的生产率与其出口规模的相关性.结论认为:出口企业生产率均值在大部分情况下低于非出口企业;出口企业的生产率在很多时候显著低于非出口企业或者与非出口企业无差异;出口企业的生产率与出口规模正相关,但是在控制其它可能影响出口的因素后,则变为负相关.这些都是中国出口企业存在“生产率悖论”的证据.     

Terms of Trade Shocks and Inflation Targeting in Emerging Market Economies

Emerging market economies (EMEs) have persistently experienced different waves of commodity terms of trade disturbances, generating macroeconomic instabilities. The adoption of inflation targeting (IT) by many EMEs has raised questions about its relative suitability in dealing with these shocks compared with other monetary policy regimes. This paper tests the robustness of IT compared with monetary targeting and exchange rate targeting regimes in coping with commodity terms of trade shocks using the panel vector autoregressive technique. The results show that in general, IT countries respond better to commodity terms of trade shocks especially with respect to inflation and output gap. However, exchange rates are more volatile in IT countries than in exchange rate targeting countries. The results suggest that EME countries can reduce the adverse effects of commodity terms of trade fluctuations when they adopt IT, but they also need to pay attention to exchange rate movements.     

改革以来中国省际农业生产率的收敛性分析

本文使用基于农产品成本收益数据的Malmquist生产率指数,采用面板数据单位根检验方法分析了改革以来中国省际农业生产率的收敛性.研究结果表明,在考虑了时间和省份特殊效应、序列相关等因素的影响后,中国省际农业生产率存在显著的条件性β收敛.为了进一步检验这一结果的可靠性,我们同时运用面板数据单位根检验的新的理论进展和方法再次对其进行检验,结果发现,条件性β收敛仍然显著存在,并表现出良好的稳健性.     

资本深化对中国制造业劳动生产率的影响:市场选择与政府行为

文章基于市场选择与政府行为的视角,将资本深化分解为工资上涨引致的资本深化和政府投资引致的资本深化,利用2000-2014年中国制造业28个分行业的面板数据,实证检验了资本深化对中国制造业劳动生产率提升的影响。研究结果表明,工资上涨引致的资本深化能显著的促进中国制造业劳动生产率的提升,而政府投资引致的资本深化却对中国制造业劳动生产率的提升产生了不利的影响。进一步的研究发现,政府投资引致的资本深化与中国制造业劳动生产率之间呈现出显著的"倒U型"关系,其临界值为政府投资引致的资本深化达到0.057左右,目前越过该临界值的制造业行业有20个,且主要集中在重化工业制造业。而未越过该临界值的制造业行业有8个,主要分布于轻工业制造业。这一研究结果为中国"去库存、去产能"的供给侧结构性改革提供必要的经验支持。