Inflation Targeting and the Pass‐through Rate in East Asian Economies

There has been serious debate regarding whether the inflation targeting (IT) framework for the emerging market economies has been an effective nominal anchor. Focusing on Korea, Thailand and the Philippines, this article aims to contribute to the debate by providing empirical evidence on a decline in the ‘pass‐through’ effect with IT adoption. Our main findings are as follows. First, under the IT framework, Korea has followed an inflation responsive rule in a forward‐looking manner, while Thailand has adopted the rule in a backward‐looking manner. Second, only Korea experiences a reduction in the pass‐through effect under IT adoption, thereby showing a linkage between the forward‐looking inflation responsive rule and the pass‐through effect. Finally, a test of the sensitivity of inflation expectations to external price shocks in Korea supports this linkage.     

Capital flows and exchange rates: recent Korean and Taiwanese experience and challenges

We first study the characteristics of the financial crisis and its impacts on Taiwanese and Korean economies. We have examined 22 macroeconomic fundamentals, such as GDP, inflation rates, government budget, trade balance, external debt, money supply, and ratios of average monthly imports and cumulative inward portfolio investment to international reserves, and compared with an extensive data set of the two countries. The comparisons point out that the macrofundamentals of both countries are basically the same, except the international finance sector. After defining currency crisis and banking crisis, the causes of crises are identified as the nominal exchange rates and the short-term external debt-to-international reserves ratios. In view of this, we use cointegration and causality tests to examine the relationship between these two time series. We have found a unidirectional causality from the short-term debt ratio to the exchange rate for Korea, but no causality between the two for Taiwan. The paper ends with some discussions on the lessons and challenges from the experience of the two countries.     

Exchange rates,price levels,and inflation targeting: Evidence from Asian countries

This study examines how the adoption of inflation-targeting influenced exchange rate pass-through and volatility in four Asian countries –Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand – over the sample period of January 1990 to June 2007. We find that adopting inflation targeting helped reduce pass-through in South Korea, and Thailand, while the results are less clear for Indonesia and the Philippines. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that inflation targeting caused a decline in exchange rate volatility in all four countries. The important lesson from the experiences of these Asian countries is that the adoption of inflation targeting contributes to achieving the ultimate goal of inflation stability through reducing exchange rate pass-through or variability.     

Estimating Open Economy New Keynesian Phillips Curve for Korea

We estimate the open economy new Keynesian Philips curve (NKPC) to characterize the inflation dynamics of Korea. While recent studies show that the NKPC holds for the pre‐currency crisis period, the empirical evidence is inconclusive for the post‐crisis period. Has globalization increased the role of global factors relative to domestic factors? Can labor income share still serve as a good measure of real marginal cost following the structural break? To address these issues for the post‐crisis period, we use two types of open NKPC: the relative prices model and the incomplete pass‐through model. The estimation of both models indicates that the forward‐looking behavior is important, and its role is reinforced in an open economy specification. Both NKPC models also show that the external factors are more relevant inflation drivers than the domestic factors.     

Enkele beschouwingen over geimporteerde inflatie

Summary Imported inflation, in the wide-open Dutch economy regarded as an important contributing force to domestic price inflation, is defined as to include all phenomena that, via external transactions, contribute to general price increases. It is argued that, as a contributing cause, imported inflation is not as prominent as is often thought and certainly not as important as domestic causes. This should not automatically lead to the conclusion that measures against imported inflation need not be taken. Even in the absence of such inflation, these measures, particularly a revaluation, may help stop the domestic price rises. It is argued that the familiar argument of revaluation having harmful effects for the balance of payments is not under all circumstances, and particularly current circumstances, correct.Rede, uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van gewoon hoogleraar aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op maandag 21 juni 1971     

Assessing the performance of inflation targeting in East Asian economies

This paper examines the implementation and performance of inflation targeting (IT) in four East Asian emerging market economies: Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. It also examines monetary policy in Malaysia, a country that has not adopted IT. The study estimates policy reaction functions to test the links between the adoption of IT and use of a monetary policy rule. The impulse responses of prices to a monetary policy shock are also estimated to identify monetary policy impacts on prices. The findings on the monetary policies of the five economies can be summarised as follows. Korea has taken an inflation‐responsive and forward‐looking policy stance under inflation targeting, which has had an effect on the stability of prices. Indonesia and Thailand have conducted inflation‐responsive but backward‐looking policy stances, which have had no impact in terms of price stabilisation. The Philippines (which adopted IT but under a pegged exchange rate regime) and Malaysia have neither followed inflation‐responsive rules nor had policy impacts in terms of controlling inflation.     

The Relationship between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty in Emerging Market Economies

A standard Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (q,v) model is employed to construct a measure of monthly inflation uncertainty in 12 emerging market economies, and the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty is examined using Granger-causality tests. The results suggest that higher inflation rates increased inflation uncertainty in all the economies, providing strong support for the Friedman hypothesis. The evidence on the effect of inflation uncertainty on average monthly inflation is more mixed, with increased inflation uncertainty leading to lower average inflation in Colombia, Israel, Mexico, and Turkey, consistent with the Holland hypothesis, but to higher average inflation in Hungary, Indonesia, and Korea, consistent with the hypothesis of Cukierman and Meltzer.     

The Impact of Inflation Uncertainty on Output Growth and Inflation in Thailand*

We explore the impact of inflation uncertainty on output growth in Thailand, an emerging market economy with moderate inflation. Inflation and output uncertainty are modeled in a bivariate constant conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (AR(p)‐cccGARCH(1,1)) specification. We include the exchange rate in the mean equations, and use the headline and core inflation rates and industrial production to generate inflation and output uncertainty series. These series are then used in Granger causality tests to make inferences about the effect of monetary policy‐induced inflation uncertainty. Causality tests show a positive relation from inflation to inflation uncertainty. Additionally, increased inflation uncertainty decreases output. These results are consistent with real costs associated with moderate inflation. Finally, we find no evidence that monetary policy reduced these costs.     

中日韩经济周期波动及其主要影响因素分析

本文对中日韩三国经济周期波动及其主要影响因素进行比较分析。研究结果表明,美国次贷危机以后中日韩经济周期波动都呈现出衰退的局面,而且经济周期转折点也基本一致,其协动性越来越强。在影响关系方面,日本和韩国的经济周期波动与通货膨胀是双向影响关系,而中国的经济周期波动仅单向影响通货膨胀;中国和韩国的经济周期波动与货币政策和财政政策是双向影响关系,而日本的货币政策和财政政策仅单向影响经济周期波动。在影响强度方面,中国的经济周期波动受到财政政策的影响相对最大,日本和韩国的经济周期波动则受到货币政策的影响相对最大。     

中国通货膨胀的内在周期波动与外在水平波动的驱动机制研究

无论是从有关中国宏观经济周期性文献,或者还是从有关中国通货膨胀文献来看,它们均普遍忽略了中国通货膨胀的内在周期与外在水平波动的分析。为此,文章首先从内部时域和频域视角,通过"谷-谷"划分法和谱分析方法对1990年到2016年的CPI进行了周期划分和波动成分分解;随后从外部视角通过对驱动通货膨胀水平波动的系统因素,进行因子提取,采用FAVAR方法研究了价格变动的影响机制。主要发现：（1）中国以CPI为度量标准的通货膨胀在1990年1月到2016年12月完整经历了6轮周期。在有些轮次周期中,上升跨越度和下降跨越度有明显的不对称性。（2）内在成分中,食品项的主周期长度和次周期长度均与CPI指数保持高度一致,食品对CPI总指数的影响相对较大,长期保持同向变动。（3）外在机制中,外部冲击因素因子、通货膨胀自身惯性和预期对中国通货膨胀变动具有较为重要的驱动贡献。中国通货膨胀不仅是货币现象,而且也是外部冲击、自身惯性与预期波动的重要驱动结果。     

Dynamic Relationships between Exchange Rates and Foreign Direct Investment: Empirical Evidence from Korea

This paper examines the short‐run and long‐run dynamic relationships between exchange rates and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Korea. Monthly data retrieved from the Bank of Korea from January 1999 to March 2012 are examined. A cointegration test, a vector error correction model, the Wald test and impulse responses techniques are applied to analyze the data. The present study finds that, first, long‐run causation between exchange rates and FDI flows exists, which implies that a change in exchange rates negatively affects FDI flows in the long run. Second, short‐run causation between exchange rates and FDI flows exists, which confirms that there is reciprocal feedback between the two variables. Finally, the study finds evidence of a structural break from the global financial crisis of 2007–2009 shock to FDI flows in Korea. An external shock affects changes in the endogenous variables and, thus, causes instability in the cointegrating vector in the system.     

House Prices and the Stance of Monetary Policy: The Case of Korea

Abstract

This paper is an empirical investigation on whether the Bank of Korea should respond to the housing price developments in conducting monetary policy. For that aim, we construct a small scale empirical model of the Korean economy, simulate the estimated model with a set of alternative monetary policy rules, and compare the stabilization performances of those rules. There turns out to be ample room for further stabilization of inflation and output, if the central bank shifts from the historically conducted monetary policy rule to the optimal rule. The stabilization gains under the optimal rule, however, are not attributable to additional policy indicators (such as housing price inflation) the optimal rule involves. Rather, the optimal rule improves upon the historical one because the former takes a quite different reaction scheme toward the historical policy indicators. Moreover, as long as the Bank of Korea maintains appropriate reactions to the historical policy indicators, housing price inflation does not contain much extra information for further stabilization     

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.     

The Argentine stabilization plan of December 20th

In this paper an analytical model is developed to incorporate the essential characteristics of the stabilization plan implemented in Argentina in January 1979. The model is based upon a set of simplifying assumptions that only approximate the complexity of the real world. It is assumed that the expectations of inflation and the degree of excess demand or supply in the non-traded goods market are the main intermediate determinants of the rate of inflation in that market, the rate of change of prices of traded goods being determined by the external inflation together with the rate of devaluation. Treating thus the external rate of inflation as exogenous, the only instrument available for influencing the rate of inflation in the long run is the rate of devaluation. Since the model assumes a fixed exchange rate regime, the money supply is endogenous and hence unsuitable as an instrument of economic policy.     

The role of import prices in flattening the Phillips curve: Evidence from Korea

Are global inflation synchronization and the flattening of the Phillips curve across the globe related? The globalization hypothesis has been proposed to explain the relationship but questions remain on its quantitative role. Focusing on South Korea, one of Asia-Pacific supply chain hubs, this paper investigates the extent to which import prices affect domestic price inflation over the period between 2002 and 2020. Specifically, we conduct the regression decomposition method to identify major sources of variation in domestic inflation, followed by a subsequent set of comparative analyses across various inflation forecasting models. Our findings confirm a tight link from import prices to domestic prices, with a 10pp increase in IPI inflation passed onto PPI and CPI inflation by 3.9pp and 3.4pp over time, respectively. The main finding of this study is consistent with the recent global inflation surge that has been driven largely by imported food and energy price channels.     

Schumpeter and arrow: Who wins in Korea and Taiwan? A case method analysis of cross country industrial structure

A case study approach is applied to a cross‐country comparison of Korea and Taiwan to model their developmental patterns and to examine the implications of their approach to industrialization, with specific regard to the theories of vertical integration by Schumpeter and Arrow and the theories of asset specificity by Williamson. The implications of inflation risks, external debt financing, innovation incentives, and restructuring problems from the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis will also be examined. The methodology used is a case study of two industries: bicycles and semiconductors. The results of this study are being used to create two dynamic models of industrial development for the two countries and to provide reasons for the differences in development paths and the implications associated with the undertaking of two drastically different models of industrialization.     

China＇s Economy in 2007/2008： Coping with Problems of Runaway Growth

Fuelled by high domestic investment and rapid export expansion, China ＂s economy grew by ll.4 pereent in 2007, the highest increase since 1994 and the fifth eonseeutive year of double-digit growth. Such spectacular growth performance is unprecedented in the world＇s economic history. However, the Chinese Government is again worried about a possible ＂hard landing＂for the economy, as no economy can sustain very strong growth for extremely long period without overheating. Cracks in China ＂s economy are indeed emerging. The eonsumer priee index shot up to 6.9percent in November 2007, the highest level in a decade, with the annual inflation for 2007 rising to 4.S pereent, well above the government＇s ＂comfort level＂ of 3 percent. This prompted China＇s top leadership to declare that reducing economic overheating and curbing inflation would be the top poliey priorities for 2008. To contain such cost-push inflation, the government has to tackle its root causes, such as excessive liquidity, which is caused by the undervaluation of the renminbi, which in turn is attributable to China＇s chronic external and internal maeroeeonomie imbalances~ High growth is likely to continue in 2008, at around l O pereent, with inflation of S-6 pereent expected, despite the anticipated tighter maeroeeonomie control measures and the more troubled external economic environment （e.g. the expected US economic slowdown）. Regardless, China ＂s fundamental problems associated with runaway growth will largely remain. In addition, if the US economy slips into a serious recession, the Chinese economy will not be able to deeouple from it and escape unscathed.     

Financial repression and real output: Macroeconometric evidence from Yugoslavia

This paper examines the effects of financial repression on macroeconomic performance in Yugoslavia. Financial disintermediation is examined in detail. A vector autoregression analysis of monthly macroeconomic data for 1978–1986, a period of fairly steady policies, is estimated. In a robust result, the degree of central bank selective rediscounting of credit is shown to influence output negatively, which may be interpreted as indicating that interventions in financial markets are serving to “back losers” and impose other costs on the Yugoslav economy. The economy is Also found to be highly inelastic in output and employment. The findings lend insights into the causes and effects of the recent surge in inflation.     

Inflation and inflation uncertainty in the ASEAN-5 economies

This study explores the linkage between inflation and inflation uncertainty in the ASEAN-5 countries over the period 1970:01–2007:12. Inflation uncertainty is estimated as a conditional variance in an AR(p)-EGARCH(1,1) model. Granger causality tests show that rising inflation increases inflation uncertainty and that rising inflation uncertainty increases inflation in all five countries. The ASEAN-5 have had low inflation rates relative to other emerging markets. Thus, our study shows that even in low inflation emerging markets inflation can lead to inflation uncertainty and uncertainty can lead to inflation. Given current inflationary pressures in these countries, our results warn of possible costs of not keeping inflation in check.     

Endogenous Growth and External Balance in a Small Open Economy

This paper puts forward an intertemporal model of a small open economy which allows for the simultaneous analysis of the determination of endogenous growth and external balance. The model assumes infinitely lived, overlapping generations that maximize lifetime utility, and competitive firms that maximize their net present value in the presence of adjustment costs for investment. Domestic securities are assumed perfect substitutes for foreign securities and the economy is assumed small in the sense of being a price taker in international goods and assets markets. It is shown that the endogenous growth rate is determined solely as a function of the determinants of domestic investment, such as the world real interest rate, the technology of domestic production and adjustment costs for investment and is independent of the preferences of domestic households and budgetary policies. The preferences of consumers and budgetary policies determine the savings rate. The current account and external balance are functions of the difference between the savings and the investment rates. The world real interest rate affects growth negatively but has a positive impact on external balance. The productivity of domestic capital affects growth positively but causes a deterioration in external balance. Population growth, government consumption and government debt affect the current account and external balance negatively, but do not affect the endogenous growth rate.