Time Aggregation and the Relationship between Inflation and Money Growth

Using panel data for 99 countries, we confirm that the measured elasticity of prices with respect to money is higher, and closer to unity, the higher is money growth and the longer the time horizon over which the data are averaged. We propose two explanations. In one, the true model of inflation involves a lagged response to money growth. In the other, there is negative correlation between shocks to inflation and money growth. Our empirical results can be explained if high–money‐growth countries have (i) shorter lags or (ii) less negative correlation, when compared to countries with low money growth.     

Money and the Welfare Cost of Inflation in an R&D Growth Model

This study analyzes the effects of inflation on R&D and innovation‐driven growth. In the theoretical section, we incorporate money demand into a quality‐ladder model with elastic labor supply and derive the following result. If the elasticity of substitution between consumption and the real money balance is less (greater) than unity, then R&D and the growth rate of output would be decreasing (increasing) in the growth rate of money supply. Quantitatively, decreasing inflation in the U.S. to achieve price stability improves social welfare, and the welfare gain is equivalent to at least 0.5% of annual consumption. In the empirical section, we use cross‐country data to establish a negative and statistically significant relationship between inflation and R&D.     

How Important Is Money in the Conduct of Monetary Policy?

I consider some of the leading arguments for assigning an important role to tracking the growth of monetary aggregates when making decisions about monetary policy. First, I consider whether ignoring money means returning to the conceptual framework that allowed the high inflation of the 1970s. Second, I consider whether models of inflation determination with no role for money are incomplete, or inconsistent with elementary economic principles. Third, I consider the implications for monetary policy strategy of the empirical evidence for a long‐run relationship between money growth and inflation. And fourth, I consider reasons why a monetary policy strategy based solely on short‐run inflation forecasts derived from a Phillips curve may not be a reliable way of controlling inflation. I argue that none of these considerations provides a compelling reason to assign a prominent role to monetary aggregates in the conduct of monetary policy.     

Rules,discretion and reputation in a model of monetary policy

In a discretionary regime the monetary authority can print more money and create more inflation than people expect. But, although these inflation surprises can have some benefits, they cannot arise systematically in equilibrium when people understand the policymaker's incentives and form their expectations accordingly. Because the policymaker has the power to create inflation shocks ex post, the equilibrium growth rates of money and prices turn out to be higher than otherwise. Therefore, enforced commitments (rules) for monetary behavior can improve matters. Given the repeated interaction between the policymaker and the private agents, it is possible that reputational forces can substitute for formal rules. Here, we develop an example of a reputational equilibrium where the outcomes turn out to be weighted averages of those from discretion and those from the ideal rule. In particular, the rates of inflation and monetary growth look more like those under discretion when the discount rate is high.     

Quantitative Goals for Monetary Policy

We study empirically the macroeconomic effects of an explicit de jure quantitative goal for monetary policy. Quantitative goals take three forms: exchange rates, money growth rates, and inflation targets. We analyze the effects on inflation of both having a quantitative target and hitting a declared target. Our empirical work uses an annual data set covering 42 countries between 1960 and 2000, and takes account of other determinants of inflation (such as fiscal policy, the business cycle, and openness to international trade) and the endogeneity of the monetary policy regime. We find that both having and hitting quantitative targets for monetary policy is systematically and robustly associated with lower inflation. The exact form of the monetary target matters somewhat (especially for the sustainability of the monetary regime) but is less important than having some quantitative target. Successfully achieving a quantitative monetary goal is also associated with less volatile output.     

Inflation dynamics: A cross-country investigation

We document that “persistent and lagged” inflation (with respect to output) is a world-wide phenomenon in that these short-run inflation dynamics are highly synchronized across countries. In particular, the average cross-country correlation of inflation is significantly and systematically stronger than that of output, while the cross-country correlation of money growth is essentially zero. We investigate whether standard monetary models driven by monetary shocks are consistent with the empirical facts. We find that neither the new Keynesian sticky-price model nor the sticky-information model can fully explain the data. An independent contribution of the paper is to provide a simple solution technique for solving general equilibrium models with sticky information.     

Inflation and Asset Returns in a Monetary Economy

Postwar U.S. data are characterized by negative correlations between real equity returns and inflation and by positive correlations between real equity returns and money growth. These patterns are closely matched quantitatively by an equilibrium monetary asset pricing model. The model also implies negative correlations between expected asset returns and expected inflation, and it predicts that the inflation-asset return correlation will be more strongly negative when inflation is generated by fluctuations in real economic activity than when it is generated by monetary fluctuations.     

数量规则还是利率规则？——我国转型时期量价混合型货币规则的理论基础

本文对我国货币政策转型时期兼顾数量和价格的货币政策调控实践进行了深入的分析。在货币数量论和货币效用模型的基础上,从理论上阐明了货币数量规则与利率价格规则的等价关系,并构建了符合中国货币政策实践的数量与价格混合型货币政策规则。这对于更好地理解我国货币政策转型时期的量价混合型货币政策操作具有重要的理论和现实意义。相关推论表明,正是由于数量和价格混合型货币规则,在利率低于均衡水平的情形下,中国的货币增速并未引发恶性通胀;修正的物价稳定泰勒原理表明,利率调整幅度小于通胀变化仍能够实现物价稳定。对中国的经验分析支持了理论和推论结果。在利率市场化基本完成和流动性格局逆转的当下,货币政策价格调控方式转型的必要性和迫切性日益上升,转型的条件日趋成熟。     

数量规则还是利率规则？——我国转型时期量价混合型货币规则的理论基础

本文对我国货币政策转型时期兼顾数量和价格的货币政策调控实践进行了深入的分析。在货币数量论和货币效用模型的基础上,从理论上阐明了货币数量规则与利率价格规则的等价关系,并构建了符合中国货币政策实践的数量与价格混合型货币政策规则。这对于更好地理解我国货币政策转型时期的量价混合型货币政策操作具有重要的理论和现实意义。相关推论表明,正是由于数量和价格混合型货币规则,在利率低于均衡水平的情形下,中国的货币增速并未引发恶性通胀;修正的物价稳定泰勒原理表明,利率调整幅度小于通胀变化仍能够实现物价稳定。对中国的经验分析支持了理论和推论结果。在利率市场化基本完成和流动性格局逆转的当下,货币政策价格调控方式转型的必要性和迫切性日益上升,转型的条件日趋成熟。     

Money demand interest elasticity and monetary policy effectiveness

This paper provides a theoretical basis for discretionary monetary policies being less effective as money demand is more sensitive to interest rates and less effective in checking recession than inflation. It cites speed of response as an important dimension of effectiveness in the policies, arguing that lagged responses diminish effectiveness by increasing prospects for destabilizing performances. It then illustrates how responses can be less rapid as money demand is more sensitive to interest rates and, providing that money demand interest sensitivity exceeds a threshold value, less rapid when the economy is short of full employment.     

Inflation and output dynamics with state-dependent pricing decisions

This paper studies a state-dependent pricing model in which firms face a fixed cost of changing their pricing plans. A pricing plan specifies an entire sequence of time-varying future prices. Allowing firms to choose a pricing plan rather than a single price generates inflation inertia in the response of the economy to small changes in the growth rate of money. Allowing firms to choose when to change their pricing plan generates a non-linear response of inflation and output to small and large changes in the money growth rate. The non-linear solution method also reveals that the model generates an asymmetric response of output and inflation to monetary expansions and contractions.     

Investigating M3 money demand in the euro area

Euro area monetary growth has exceeded its target since 2001. Likewise, recent empirical studies did not find evidence in favour of a stable long-run money demand function. In contrast to the bulk of the literature, we are able to identify a stable long-run money demand relationship. This result is obtained when the analysis is done without the short run homogeneity restriction between money and prices. The basic equation can be improved by allowing for asymmetric adjustment. In a low inflation environment, opportunity costs of holding money have decreased. Thus, the apparent monetary overhang is reconciled within standard models.     

高货币化、通货膨胀预期与通货膨胀

通货膨胀成为信用货币经济中循环往复的问题,货币是症结关键。通过建立包含货币缺口和收入差距的凯恩斯Phillips曲线理论模型,利用中国1979-2010年的数据实证得出:货币化通过两种途径作用于通货膨胀,一是通过扩大货币缺口、直接推动当期物价上升,二是高货币化导致了较高的通货膨胀预期,这种预期又推动了通货膨胀的自我实现。因此,在经济平稳发展情况下,货币化是一个金融发展程度指标,但在严重依赖货币扩张推动经济增长的情况下,货币化却可能是货币超发的指标,与通货膨胀存在着密切关系。     

我国货币供应与投资的关系问题研究

本文将我国货币供应、投资支出和经济增长纳入统一模型,实证分析了三个变量之间的关系。研究发现:无论从长期还是短期来看,投资、货币供给拉动经济增长的作用都不能达到因果检验的显著性要求,反映了我国经济的价格弹性较高,投资的高速增长不能完全解释我国经济增长的动力源泉;我国投资高速增长的根源来自经济增长形成的高储蓄,而非货币刺激;货币供应高速增长在很大程度上是被动适应投资和经济发展需求的增长。因此,我国货币政策制定应以保持投资和经济增长稳定发展为重要目标,而不应以刺激投资与经济增长为目的,否则可能会引致通货膨胀上升,增加经济运行成本和降低经济发展质量。应保持基础领域和改革创新领域投资增速的稳定,并鼓励和引导民间投资,改善国内投资环境,以增强经济发展的活力。     

Inflation and stagflation

This paper reports on the author's theoretical and empirical research which has supported the following propositions. First, the change in the rate of inflation from one year to the next depends upon the growth of the money supply less the current rate of inflation. The current unemployment rate does not significantly affect whether the rate of inflation will rise or fall. If the monetary authorities raise the rate of monetary expansion above the current rate of inflation, the latter will rise regardless of the slack in the economy. Second, the change in the unemployment rate from one year to the next depends upon: (a) the deviation of the current unemployment rate from its equilibrium value and (b) the growth of the money supply less the current rate of inflation. The first effect concerns wage flexibility and the second effect concerns the shift of the aggregate demand (C+I+G) curve.     

对中国通货膨胀的基本判断及货币政策建议

中国宏观经济正处于一个通货膨胀的通道之中,但中国强有力的货币政策措施效果不显著。究其原因,在于本轮通货膨胀具有不同以往的外源性特征,其中包含了美国美元贬值阴谋。正因为中国通货膨胀仅仅是全球性通货膨胀的一部分,同时中国承担着全球性通货膨胀成本,因此解决通货膨胀问题,并非中国的"家务事"。在此背景中,针对国内通货膨胀问题,中国不能急于求成,而只能顺势而为,以财政政策为主,来弱化通胀之负作用。货币政策作为辅助性政策,仅需要保持从紧状态,避免信贷失控即可。     

Model Uncertainty and Delegation: A Case for Friedman's k-Percent Money Growth Rule?

Model uncertainty affects the monetary policy delegation problem. If there is uncertainty with regards to the determination of the delegated objective variables, the central bank will want robustness against potential model misspecifications. We show that with plausible degree of model uncertainty, delegation of the Friedman rule of increasing the money stock by k percent to the central bank will outperform commitment to the social loss function (flexible inflation targeting). The reason is that the price paid for robustness under flexible inflation targeting outweighs the inefficiency of money growth targeting. Imperfect control of money growth does not change this conclusion.     

Recent developments in monetary theory

This paper surveys recent work in monetary theory, with primary emphasis on material that has appeared since the writing of Harry Johnson's 1962 survey. The discussion deals with the following topics: (1) the theory of money demand, with special attention to inventory approaches; (2) money, inflation and growth; (3) the welfare cost of inflation, the optimum quantity of money, and inflationary finance; (4) disequilibrium theory; (5) the general equilibrium approach to monetary theory; (6) the new microfoundations of money; and (7) rational expectations and the Phillips Curve.     

论货币与通胀关系的背离

长期以来,中国的货币增长和通货膨胀之间保持着良好的同步关系。但2010年下半年以来,这种稳定的关系似乎被打破,货币与通胀的同步关系出现趋势性背离。这无疑给经济预测以及宏观调控带来了极大的挑战。这种趋势性背离的根本原因是什么,未来这种背离是否仍将继续以及货币政策将如何应对,这些都是摆在我们面前的重要课题。本文将尝试从多个角度对这些问题进行剖析,以期得到若干基本结论和政策建议。