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 Triggers in Transition Economies: Their Evolution and Specific Features

Analysis of thirty inflation episodes in sixteen European transition economies, using the probit panel model with fixed effects, uncovers inflation triggers that overlap with those obtained in either developing or developed countries or both. However, we found some transition-specific features. Thus, the relative contribution of the triggers evolves as transition progresses, such that the early dominance of the output gap, the fiscal deficit, and elections are subsequently subdued by a rise in food and oil prices, the exchange rate regime, and the current account deficit. The last two triggers could be linked to deep financial integration in Europe and the consequent large flow of capital toward European transition economies in the 2000s, a phenomenon not observed in any other part of the world. In addition, the exchange rate regime as an inflation starter in transitional Europe may be due to its convergence with developed Europe and the resulting real appreciation of currency.     

Testing stock market linkages for Poland and Hungary: A multivariate GARCH approach

This paper examines the linkages between the emerging stock markets in Warsaw and Budapest and the established markets in Frankfurt and the U.S. By using a four-variable asymmetric GARCH-BEKK model, we find evidence of returns and volatility spillovers from the developed to the emerging markets. However, as the estimated time-varying conditional covariances and the variance decompositions indicate limited interactions among the markets, the emerging markets are weakly linked to the developed markets. The implication is that foreign investors may benefit from the reduction of risk by adding the stocks in the emerging markets to their investment portfolio.     

Inflation Announcements and Social Dynamics

We propose a new framework for understanding the effectiveness of central bank announcements when firms have heterogeneous inflation expectations. Expectations are updated through social dynamics and, with heterogeneity, not all firms choose to operate, putting downward pressure on realized inflation. Our model rationalizes why countries stuck at the zero lower bound have had a hard time increasing inflation without being aggressive. The same model also predicts that announcing an abrupt target to disinflate will cause inflation to undershoot the target, whereas announcing gradual targets will not. We present new empirical evidence that corroborates this prediction.     

Globalization and Changing Inflation Dynamics in China

This article investigates the changing impact of economic globalization on inflation in China over the post-reform era. We construct an inflation dynamics model with globalization factors from microeconomic foundations. Empirical results with quarterly data spanning from 1984 to 2012 show that in 1994 there was a significant structural change in the inflation dynamics model, after which China’s inflation responded more significantly to foreign economic slack while the slope of the inflation-domestic slack relation reduced substantively.     

Inflation Dynamics: The Role of Expectations

This paper estimates the Phillips curve allowing for a simultaneous role of rational and survey expectations. We consider both a reduced form and a structural specification of the Phillips curve. The results suggest that survey expectations can be a statistically significant component of firms' expectations and inflation dynamics. However, rational expectations continue to play a dominant role.     

The performance of new equity offerings in Hungary and Poland

This paper documents the short- and long-run price performance of 103 initial public offerings (IPOs) in Poland and 33 in Hungary during the 1991–1998 period. The empirical analysis reveals significant first-day underpricing of 15.12% in Hungary and 54.45% in Poland. The long-run performance of the new offerings in these markets is less conclusive. The cross-section regression analysis finds that market momentum is a significant and primary determinant of initial returns in both countries. The evidence suggests that over the study period, the degree of underpricing is determined by the intensity of demand driven by investor interest where offering prices do not fully adjust to the prevailing market conditions.     

中国食品与非食品间的价格传导机制：理论和实证分析

本文对食品价格向非食品价格传导机制进行了理论上的分析,提出了成本推动、结构性推动和通胀预期三种传导途径,并建立了一个以食品通胀率和非食品通胀率为变量的向量自回归模型和脉冲响应函数对二者间的传导途径进行实证检验。结果显示：食品价格与非食品价格的传递作用是存在的,食品价格的上涨会对非食品价格造成同向的冲击．并且这种冲击具有稳定的持续效应。另外．我国食品通胀率比非食品通胀率波动性强,如果二者之间传导机制通畅．食品领域的通胀会对非食品领域的通胀水平带来巨大冲击,引发全面通胀的风险。因此,货币政策的制定不应剔除食品价格因素,我国CPI指数中的食品权重应谨慎下调。     

通胀惯性、混合菲利普斯曲线与中国通胀动态特征

本文在Gali & Gertler(2000)的基础上,构建了一个考虑通胀惯性的高阶滞后混合菲利普斯曲线的结构模型框架,并基于GMM模型对高阶滞后混合菲利普斯曲线进行计量检验和实证分析,通过估计其结构参数和深度参数来度量我国通胀惯性的大小及对通胀的影响,刻画我国通胀的动态特征以及我国厂商的定价行为。实证结果表明,我国通胀具有高阶滞后混合菲利普斯曲线的动态特征,滞后阶数为2,通胀同时存在向前看的理性预期和向后看的适应性预期;我国通胀惯性和通胀预期的强度对通胀率指标范畴十分敏感,CPI通胀率的通胀惯性和持续性大于RPI,CPI通胀率的适应性预期特征强于理性预期特征,RPI通胀率的理性预期特征强于适应性预期特征。在我国厂商定价概率方面,CPI通胀率相对于RPI通胀率,产品价格调整时间间隔较长,厂商对经济政策的反应较不敏感;在厂商价格预期行为方面,CPI通胀率相对于RPI通胀率,厂商对适应性预期的依赖程度超过了理性预期。     

Real Interest Rates and Inflation: An Ex-Ante Empirical Analysis

We develop a method of measuring ex-ante real interest rates using prices of index and nominal bonds. Employing this method and newly available data, we directly test the Fisher hypothesis that the real rate of interest is independent of inflation expectations. We find a negative correlation between ex-ante real interest rates and expected inflation. This contradicts the Fisher hypothesis but is consistent with the theories of Mundell and Tobin, Darby and Feldstein, and Stulz. We also find that nominal interest rates include an inflation risk premium that is positively related to a proxy for inflation uncertainty.     

Normalizing the Central Bank's Balance Sheet: Implications for Inflation and Debt Dynamics

We explore the effects of reducing the overall size of the central bank's balance sheet and lowering its maturity structure. To do so, we consider an environment where fiscal policy is traditionally passive and the central bank follows the Taylor principle. In addition, the monetary authority has also explicit size and compositional rules regarding its balance sheet. Agents in this economy face limited commitment in some markets and government bonds can be used as collateral. When short- and long-term public debt exhibit premia, changes in the central bank's balance sheet have implications for long-run inflation and real allocations. To ensure a unique locally stable steady state, the central bank should target a low enough maturity composition of its balance sheet. In our numerical exercise, calibrated to the United States, we find that long-term debt holdings by the central bank should be less than 0.5 times of their short-term positions. Moreover, the process of balance sheet normalization should aggressively respond to the total debt issued in the economy relative to its target. These findings depend on the degree of liquidity of long-term bonds. The more liquid long-term bonds are, the lower is the value of the composition threshold and the parameter space consistent with unique and stable equilibria is smaller. In addition, we consider a modified Taylor rule that takes into account the premium. Such a rule increases the prevalence of multiplicity of steady states and delivers lower welfare. Thus, we argue that the traditional Taylor rule is appropriate for managing interest rates in the presence of premia.     

Dynamics of Persistence in International Inflation Rates

Characteristics of inflation play a key role in policy formulation and market analysis. Several studies have analyzed inflation persistence and reached diverging conclusions. In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of inflation persistence using fractionally integrated processes and find that there has been a clear decline in inflation persistence in the United States over the past two decades. We also show that the presence of fractional integration in inflation successfully explains previous diverging results. Lastly, we provide some international comparisons to examine the extent to which there has been a commensurate decline in inflation persistence in the other G7 economies.     

股票收益率与通胀关系的实证研究

本文基于费雪理论,使用1991-2010年的月度数据对中国股市的收益率与通货膨胀率之间的关系进行实证分析,并进一步检验各行业股票对通胀风险的防御效果。研究结果表明,总体上股票收益率与通胀率显著负相关,即股票不是持续高通胀时期的有效保值工具,但是在材料、医药和消费等行业仍具有较好的通胀防御效果。     

全球流动性扩张的通货膨胀效应研究

近些年来,全球流动性扩张问题颇受宏观经济与金融研究者们的广泛关注。本文选取了33个国家或地区从1980年第一季度到2009年第四季度的相关经济和金融方面数据,在经济数据处理的基础上利用相关统计方法对全球流动性进行了测量。在Philips曲线基准模型框架下,本文考察了全球流动性扩张的通货膨胀效应。最后,结合实证研究结果本文给出了相关研究结论和启示。     

Monetary Pressures and Inflation Dynamics in Turkey: Evidence from P-Star Model

This paper uses the P-star model to explain inflation dynamics in Turkey. In P-star models, money determines the price gap, which is postulated to measure the pressure on prices in an economy. This pressure emerges when output is above the potential, the interest rate is lower than the natural rate, or there is pure excess money in the economy. The estimation results with the Turkish data show that the price gap contains considerable information for explaining inflation dynamics. Moreover, the model selection criterion that compares the empirical performance of the P-star model with the new classical Phillips curve relation favors the P-star model over the Phillips curve relationship. We conclude that money is efficacious in predicting risk in price stability in Turkey.     

我国近年来通货膨胀原因的实证分析

近两年我国出现了较高的通货膨胀,严重影响了人们的生活水平。导致通货膨胀的原因很多,了解使其产生的主要原因,有针对性的采取措施,可以有效缓解通胀压力和治理通货膨胀。本文运用实证分析的方法,通过对相关因素的分析来确定引起我国通货膨胀的主要原因,并给出相应的政策建议。     

通货膨胀动态路径的结构性转变及其启示

通货膨胀动态机制是否发生结构性转变对分析通货膨胀动态走势和制定宏观经济政策都至关重要。本文运用新的未知断点结构性变化检验法研究了1981-2007年中国月度通胀率动态路径的内生性变化,并使用非标准分布条件下的渐进伴随概率分布函数计算了干扰参数检验统计量对应的p-值。实证结果显示,通货膨胀动态路径在九十年代中期发生了显著的结构性变化。基于这种结构性转变的脉冲响应对比分析说明,新时期货币当局需要加强对通货膨胀动态路径变化的监控,防止通胀持续上升。     

Testing Commitment Models of Monetary Policy: Evidence from OECD Economies

Inflation in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries was low in the 1960s, rose for a time before peaking in the 1970s or early 1980s, and then fell back to initial levels. This paper shows that a simple time inconsistency model of monetary policy does not explain OECD inflation outcomes, except in the United States. The hypothesis that time inconsistency mattered only in earlier decades fits the data no better than the baseline model. We find some, albeit limited support for a model in which inflation spills over from the United States into other countries as a result of exchange rate targeting.     

Search Frictions,Real Rigidities,and Inflation Dynamics

The literature on New Keynesian models with search frictions in the labor market commonly assumes that price setters are not actually subject to such frictions. Here, I propose a model where firms are subject both to infrequent price adjustment and search frictions. This interaction gives rise to real price rigidities, which have the effect of slowing down the adjustment of the price level to shocks. This has a number of consequences for equilibrium dynamics. First, inflation becomes less volatile and more persistent. More importantly, the model’s empirical performance improves along its labor market dimensions, such as the size of unemployment fluctuations and the relative volatility of the two margins of labor.