Threshold cointegration between inflation and US capacity utilization

An analogue to the Phillips curve shows a positive relationship between inflation and capacity utilization. Some recent empirical work has shown that this relationship has broken down when using data after the mid-1980s. We empirically investigate this issue using several threshold error correction models. We find, in the long run, a 1% increase in the rate of inflation leads to approximately a 0.0046% increase in capacity utilization. The asymmetric error correction structure shows that changes in capacity utilization show significant corrective measures only during booms while changes in inflation correct during both phases of the business cycle with the corrections being stronger during recessions. We also find that, in the short run, changes in the inflation rate do Granger cause capacity utilization while changes in capacity utilization do not Granger cause inflation. The Granger causality from inflation to capacity utilization can be interpreted as supporting recent calls made in the popular press by some economists that it may be desirable for the Federal Reserve Bank to try to induce some inflation. However, it is also possible to interpret these Granger causality results as arising because both variables respond to some more fundamental set of variables with the inflation rate simply responding sooner. The lack of Granger causality from capacity utilization to inflation casts doubt on the older view that capacity utilization could be a leading indicator for future inflation.     

Nonlinear adjustment in PPP—evidence from threshold cointegration

Nonlinearity in PPP has been carefully reported in number of studies. However, asymmetry with respect to the sign of the deviation and the dependency of the asymmetry on the exchange rate regime has largely remained outside the scope of those studies. The present paper partly fills this gap. It applies threshold cointegration techniques to real exchange rate dynamics between two Nordic countries, Finland and Sweden. First, it examines whether the sign of the deviation from equilibrium has any impact on adjustment. Second, it estimates an asymmetric band-type threshold cointegration in PPP. The results supported asymmetric adjustment in PPP. The single, asymmetric threshold indicated stronger adjustment during the flexible exchange rate regime. The band-type asymmetric threshold cointegration suggested that adjustment towards PPP would be fastest within the estimated band, which was interpreted as evidence for the target zone exchange rate regime. Accordingly, the inference on adjustment is sensitive to the type of nonlinearity used.I am grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees for many helpful comments and suggestions.     

A test for inflation persistence in Nigeria using fractional integration & fractional cointegration techniques

This study seeks to test for inflation persistence in Nigeria using the recently developed fractional cointegration VAR model by Johansen and Nielsen (2012) and complemented with univariate fractional integration techniques. The empirical results suggest evidence of high inflation persistence in Nigeria albeit with a lower trend after the global financial crisis. Also, the major classes of inflation – headline, core and food inflation rates, share long run properties regardless of the sample used. This suggests that any policy action directed at a particular class of inflation will have a spill-over effect on the other classes given the strong association among them. The ability to also exploit the fractional cointegration in a multivariate set-up when modeling inflation is a major contribution of this study and ignoring same may lead to wrong conclusions. However, the results are sensitive to the choice of data frequency.     

On the nonlinear relationship between inflation and economic growth

Using a large panel data set from both developed and developing economies and employing the PSTR and dynamic GMM techniques, this study highlights two aspects of the inflation–growth relationship. First, it analyzes the nonlinearity of the relationship and identifies several thresholds for the global sample and for various income-specific sub-samples. Second, it identifies some country-based macroeconomic features that influence this nonlinearity. Our empirical results substantiate both views and validate the fact that inflation–growth nonlinearity is sensitive to a country׳s level of financial development, capital accumulation, trade openness and government expenditures. Moreover, these country-specific characteristics result in some marked differences in this nonlinear relationship.     

The joint dynamics of inflation, unemployment and interest rate in the United States since 1980

In this paper, by using a combination of long-run and short-run restrictions, we identify a small structural VECM which includes inflation, unemployment and the federal funds rate and study the dynamic interactions at different frequencies among these variables. Our results show that: (a) in accordance with the traditional view of economic fluctuations, aggregate demand shocks and monetary policy shocks push inflation and unemployment in opposite directions in the short run; (b) the permanent supply shock explains the long-run movement of inflation and unemployment. These conclusions are at odds with the prediction of “natural-rate” models but are consistent with the idea of a propagation mechanism which links productivity shocks to inflation and unemployment at medium and low frequencies. Thus, with respect to some recent studies (e.g. Beyer and Farmer, ECB Working Paper 121, 2002, and Ireland, J Monet Econ 44:279–291, 1999), we offer a different interpretation of the low-frequency comovements between inflation and unemployment characterizing the US economy in the last decades.

Analysis of threshold cointegration with asymmetric adjustments in the Hong Kong grocery industry

High market concentration in the Hong Kong grocery industry has been prevalent over many years with the domination of a few large supermarket chains. However, no research has been conducted on the price dynamics between the supermarket and non-supermarket sectors to investigate whether the non-supermarket sector can impose competitive discipline on the dominating supermarket chains. We argue that standard cointegration tests cannot allow for transaction costs and distinguish whether the price co-movement is attributable to price competition or collusion. Our study therefore fills this research gap by adopting the threshold cointegration tests in a three-regime threshold vector error-correction model to account for the asymmetric price adjustment dynamics between supermarket and non-supermarket sectors of Hong Kong and evaluate the market power of the supermarket sectors in the presence of transaction costs. Our results favour the presence of cointegration between the supermarket and non-supermarket price indices with asymmetric adjustment dynamics. We interpret the results of statistically significant downward price adjustments in the outer-band regimes as the evidence of mutual price competition. Nevertheless, the supermarket sector has stronger market power than the non-supermarket sector, and therefore can sustain higher price level without inducing substantial competition pressures inside the neutral band.     

Asymmetric behavior of inflation differentials in the euro area: Evidence from a threshold unit root test

This paper tests the existence of persistent inflation rate differentials in the euro area by employing linear as well nonlinear unit root tests. Besides linear unit root tests, a two-regime threshold unit root test examines the conjecture that inflation rate differentials follow a nonlinear two-regime process towards a threshold, switching from the persistent regime to the transitory one and vice versa. The results imply that threshold nonlinearity is confirmed in 10 out of the 16 cases. However, we have found unit root regime-switching behavior only in six out of the 16 cases under investigation. This finding implies that these inflation rate differentials were persistent when they were low (regime 1), but transitory when they were high (regime 2). This asymmetric behavior can possibly be explained by the different degree of pressure exercised on governments, which is accompanied with different inflation rate differentials. On the contrary, despite the evidence of nonlinearity, the majority of the inflation rate differentials are found to be monotonically persistent. Our results have strong implications for policy makers. In particular, the documented persistency in the inflation rate differentials might have long-run costs in terms of price and macroeconomic stability.     

On the real effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty in Mexico

We estimate an augmented multivariate GARCH-M model of inflation and output growth for Mexico at business cycle frequencies. The main findings are: (1) inflation uncertainty has a negative and significant effect on growth; (2) once the effect of inflation uncertainty is accounted for, lagged inflation does not have a direct negative effect on output growth; (3) However as predicted by Friedman and Ball, higher average inflation raises inflation uncertainty, and the overall net effect of average inflation on output growth in Mexico is negative. That is, average inflation is harmful to Mexican growth due to its impact on inflation uncertainty. (4) The Mexican Presidential election cycle significantly raises inflation uncertainty both during the year of the election and the year following the election which has correspondingly negative effects on output growth.     

Optimizing time-series forecasts for inflation and interest rates using simulation and model averaging

Motivated by economic-theory concepts – the Fisher hypothesis and the theory of the term structure – we consider a small set of simple bivariate closed-loop time-series models for the prediction of price inflation and of long- and short-term interest rates. The set includes vector autoregressions (VAR) in levels and in differences, a cointegrated VAR and a non-linear VAR with threshold cointegration based on data from Germany, Japan, UK and the US. Following a traditional comparative evaluation of predictive accuracy, we subject all structures to a mutual validation using parametric bootstrapping. Ultimately, we utilize the recently developed technique of Mallows model averaging to explore the potential of improving upon the predictions through combinations. While the simulations confirm the traded wisdom that VARs in differences optimize one-step prediction and that error correction helps at larger horizons, the model-averaging experiments point at problems in allotting an adequate penalty for the complexity of candidate models.     

Pitfalls in estimates of the relationship between stock returns and inflation

Empirical tests of the Fisher hypothesis give conflicting results, regardless of whether income growth is accommodated in the estimates. This paper shows theoretically and empirically that standard methods of testing the Fisher hypothesis give biased results and that the bias depends on the specification of the Fisher equation, the process governing inflation, measurement of inflation expectations, and the time aggregation of the data. Alternative tests show that share markets take several years to adjust to innovations in inflation and therefore that the Fisher hypothesis cannot be maintained. Helpful comments and suggestions from Hans Christian Kongsted, Darrel Turkington and seminar participants at the University of Western Australia, and University of Konstanz and, particularly, two referees, are gratefully acknowledged.     

A cointegration analysis of gasoline demand in the United States

Time-series estimation of gasoline demand elasticities often does not take into account the possibility of nonstationarity in the underlying data, which may render the parameter estimates spurious. Studies have shown that the time trending variables used to explain gasoline demand could be difference stationary and therefore, may require cointegration analysis to assess the relationship among the trending variables. In this work we use the cointegration technique to derive long-run and short-run demand elasticities of noncommercial gasoline consumption using time-series data for the USA from 1949 to 2004. We also attempt to incorporate the presence of a structural break in the data generation process of the time trending variables. Our results show that the consumption of gasoline and lifetime income have a long-term stable relationship after the second oil shock of 1978. Prior to the first oil shock of 1973, no such long-run relationship could be established through cointegration.     

Linkages among Interest Rates in the United States, Germany and Norway

The Johansen multivariate cointegration methodology is used to analyze relationships among short-term and long-term interest rates in the United States, Germany and Norway. A variance decomposition approach is applied to estimate the proportion of each interest rate's forecast error variance attributable to innovations in the other interest rates. Impulse response functions are plotted to illustrate the speed with which interest rate events are transmitted between capital markets. The analyses illustrate that US interest rates have a significant influence on both German and Norwegian interest rates, while the reverse effect is modest. Norway is also strongly exposed to German interest rate movements, which reflects the consequences of a small country linking its currency to the value of European currencies.     

Panel cointegration and the neutrality of money

Most econometric methods for testing the proposition of long-run monetary neutrality rely on the assumption that money and real output do not cointegrate, a result that is usually supported by the data. This paper argues that these results can be attributed in part to the low power of univariate tests, and that a violation of the noncointegration assumption is likely to result in a nonrejection of the neutrality proposition. To alleviate this problem, two new and more powerful panel cointegration tests are proposed that can be used under quite general conditions. The empirical results obtained from applying these tests to a panel covering ten countries between 1870 and 1986 suggest money and real output are cointegrated, and hence that the neutrality proposition must be rejected.      

Fractional cointegration and the term structure

According to the expectations theory of the term structure of interest rates, the yield spread between long-term and short-term interest rates is an optimal predictor of future changes in short rates over the long-run. Results concerning the empirical validity of this hypothesis are not unanimous. These contradictions may be due to the fact that the traditional concept of cointegration is too restrictive. We refer here to the concept of fractional cointegration introduced by Granger (1986). We study the expectations theory by testing for the existence of a (fractional) cointegration relationship between short-term and long-term interest rates. There is evidence of fractional cointegration between interest rates for the G7 countries, with the exception of Germany.First version received: July 2002 / Final version received: July 2003We thank two anonymous referees for very helpful and detailed comments.     

美国量化宽松货币政策影响及中国对策

随着金融危机的不断蔓延和影响的逐渐深化,美国在采取第一轮和第二轮量化宽松货币政策失效后,还可能采取第三轮量化宽松货币政策来稳定和刺激经济。此种极端货币政策引发多米诺骨牌效应,并将对中国经济产生深远影响。对此,文章从量化宽松货币政策产生的机理出发,在着重分析美国量化宽松货币政策对中国经济可能造成影响的基础上,提出中国所应采取的应对策略,以减缓量化宽松货币政策对中国经济可能产生的不利影响。     

The transmission of inflation between the United States and Canada: An empirical analysis

This paper investigates the causal patterns, in the sense of Granger, which characterize the relationships between U.S. and Canadian inflation rates under different exchange rate regimes. Both bivariate and multivariate models are considered. The results suggest that the flexible exchange rate period of the 1950s exhibits no insulating effects with causal inferences similar to those from the fixed rate era of the 1960s. For the flexible rate period of the 1970s the bivariate model indicates that U.S. and Canadian inflation are independent but when the model is expanded to include money growth rates in each country, evidence of a direct, nonmonetary causal link from U.S. inflation to Canadian inflation is found.     

Correct cointegration tests of the long-run relationship between nominal interest and inflation

The Fisher (1930) hypothesis suggests that a long-run equilibrium relationship exists between the non-stationary series: nominal interest and expected inflation. Testing such a cointegrating relationship is complicated by the presence of the unobserved ex antereal rate of interest in residuals from the cointegrating regression. Assumptions concerning the stochastic properties of the expected real rate of interest are examined, and two proxies for the ex antereal rate are employed in multivariate cointegration tests of the Fisher hypothesis.     

Understanding the dynamics of labor shares and inflation

Calvo-style models of nominal rigidities currently provide the dominant paradigm for understanding the linkages between wage and price dynamics. Recent empirical implementations stress the idea that these models link inflation to the behavior of the labor share of income. Ga?´ et al. (2001) argue that the model explains the combination of declining inflation and labor shares in Euro area. In this paper, we show that with realistic parameters, the canonical Calvo-style model cannot explain the joint behavior of inflation and the labor share in Europe. In addition, we show that the model fails very badly in sectoral data with consistently negative estimated coefficients on the labor share in a number of different inflation specifications. Indeed, the use of a traditional output gap measure proved more successful in terms of a positive relationship with inflation.