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.     

Adjustment Mechanisms in a Currency Area

Both the euro-area and the United States suffered an initially quite similar housing and financial shock in 2007/8, with several states in both regions being particularly badly affected. Yet there was never any question that the worst hit US states would need a special bail-out or leave the dollar area, whereas such concerns have worsened in the euro-area. We focus on three badly affected states, Arizona, Spain and Latvia, to examine the working of relative adjustment mechanisms within the currency region. We concentrate on four such mechanisms, relative wage adjustment, migration, net fiscal flows and bank flows. Only in Latvia was there any relative wage adjustment. Intra-EU migration has increased, but is more costly for those involved in the EU (than in the USA). Net federal financing helped Arizona and Latvia in the crisis, but not Spain. The locally focussed structure of banking amplified the crisis in Spain, whereas the role of out-of-state banks eased adjustment in Arizona and Latvia. The latter reinforces the case for an EU banking union.     

Reactions to Shocks and Monetary Policy Regimes: Inflation Targeting Versus Flexible Currency Board in Sub‐Saharan Africa

The paper examines the monetary policy actions through which central banks in sub‐Saharan Africa have tried to eliminate the negative impacts of the shocks facing their economies. We compare two different monetary policy regimes: a currency board regime (in the CFA zone) and an inflation targeting policy regime (Ghana and South Africa) when central banks respond to demand, supply, and fiscal shocks. We extend the usual forecasting and policy analysis system models to replicate the economic features of these economies during the period 2002–12 and to evaluate the impact of several policies in response to these shocks. We find that both policies are inappropriate in helping the economies escape from the effects of negative demand shocks, both are essential when negative shocks to primary balance occur, while inflation targeting dominates the currency board regime as a strategy to cope with positive shocks to inflation.     

通胀目标制：功能机理、政策绩效与启示

通货膨胀目标制是20世纪90年代初西方发达国家兴起的一种货币政策框架。文章从理论阐释了通胀目标制的功能机理,运用48个国家的相关数据对通胀目标制的绩效进行了实证分析,实证结果表明:通货膨胀目标制有助于锚住通胀预期,降低通货膨胀,稳定产出,是一种比较成功的货币政策框架。这一结论对货币政策框架需要调整的我国具有一定的政策启示。     

The Contribution of Sectoral Productivity Differentials to Inflation in Greece

This paper estimates the magnitude of the Balassa-Samuelson effect for Greece. We calculate the effect directly, using sectoral national accounts data, which permits estimation of total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the tradeables and nontradeables sectors. Our results suggest that it is difficult to produce one estimate of the BS effect. Any particular estimate is contingent on the definition of the tradeables sector and the assumptions made about labour shares. Moreover, there is also evidence that the effect has been declining through time as Greek standards of living have caught up on those in the rest of the world and as the non-tradeables sector within Greece catches up with the tradeables.

Money,Inflation and Adjustment Policy in Africa: Some Further Evidence

Abstract: In view of the explicit link between inflation and the rate of monetary expansion that is invariably incorporated into many macroeconomic adjustment programmes in Africa, this paper, using both cross-section and time series econometric analysis, provides some new empirical evidence on the relationship between money and inflation in Africa. It is shown that although, broadly speaking, the simple monetarist inflation model appears to hold when tested in cross-section equations covering several countries and averaged over several years, the same is generally not true for individual countries in time series analysis or in cross-section studies covering shorter time periods. In fact, the result of the analysis strongly suggest that factors other than the rate of monetary expansion have played an important role in determining short-run inflation trends in Africa. With respect to the implications of these findings for the conduct of current macroeconomic policy and in particular, given the apparently lesser role that ought to be assigned to monetary factors over the short run, the paper urges greater flexibility in deploying policy instruments towards inflation targets in individual African countries and cautions against the application of rules based on regional results in favour of those derived from country-specific findings. Résumé: Compte tenu du lien explicite entre inflation et taux d'expansion monetaire, auquel il est invariablement fait reference dans de nombreux pro-grammes d'ajustements macro-economique en Afrique, cet article, s'appuyant sur une analyse economique de donnees transversales et chronologiques fournit de nouvelles preuves empiriques des relations qui existent entre la monnaie et l'inflation en Afrique. On montre que, de facon generale, mkme si le simple modele monetariste d'inflation parait ktre valide lorsqu'on effectue des tests sur des equations transversales couvrant plusieurs pays et qu'on calcule sa moyenne sur plusieurs annees, il n'en est pas de mCme, pour les pays consideres isolement, dans l'analyse de series chronologiques ou dans les etudes transver-sales couvrant des periodes plus courtes. De fait, les resultats de l'analyse donnent fortement a penser que des facteurs autres que le taux d'expension monetaire ont joue un role important dansla determination des tendances inflationnistes a court terme en Afrique. En ce qui concerne les consequences de ces conclusions pour la conduite de la politique macro-economique actuelle et, en particulier, vu le role moins important, a ce qui semble, qu'il faudrait accorder court terme aux facteurs monetaires, l'article preconise une plus grande souplesse dans le deploiement de la panoplie des instruments de poli- tique economique pour atteindre les objectifs retenus pour le taux d'inflation dam les differents pays africains et met en garde contre l'application de regles fondees sur les resultats regionaux en faveur de celles elaborees a partir de conclusions propres aux pays.     

中美“宽松”货币政策、通胀预期与货币规则的探讨

2008年10月以来,中美两国均采取了不同程度的"宽松"货币政策来应对源于美国金融危机的全球经济衰退。本文的研究显示,2008年,中美两国货币供应量M1和M2增长率是相似的;2008年底到2009年8月,中国的M1和M2增长率分别为20.6%和21.4%,而美国的M1和M2增长率仅为3.36%和2.14%,中国的通胀预期是市场对"超级宽松"货币政策的合理反应。在过去的一年间,中国货币当局对美国金融危机的反应比美国的政策干预更为积极。而货币供应量的高增长孕育着价格上涨的风险,货币政策应当从被动协调美国的相机抉择转向遵循货币数量规则,抑制通胀预期,以实现宏观经济的稳定增长。     

刘易斯拐点是否必然导致通胀?

近期有不少人士认为刘易斯拐点的出现及其引发的劳动力成本冲击会系统性推高中国目前及未来相当长一段时间的通胀水平。本文通过对典型经济体的经验以及理论分析认为,如果没有需求面以及货币供应量的配合,经济体在经历刘易斯拐点之时所面临的劳动力成本上升,并不必然导致通胀水平的系统性抬升。建议中国目前应该注重稳健的货币政策,并加快经济结构调整和城镇化建设。     

Rural-Urban Wage Differentials,Unemployment, and Efficiency Wages: An Open Economy Policy Analysis

This paper analyzes the desirability of various policies designed to counteract the distorting nature of an equilibrium rural-urban wage differential in a small, open, two-sector economy with urban unemployment. A dual labor market model with an efficiency wage in the urban sector and urban unemployment is analyzed for the distributional and national output effects of an urban wage subsidy, an urban production subsidy, and a tariff on the urban good. While a small subsidy or tariff raises the value of national output, redistribution effects may limit the viability of intervention. However, subsidies can also be Pareto improving policies.     

Low Inflation,Pass-through,and a Discrete Inflation-targeting Framework for Monetary Policy in China

The performance of inflation in China over the past few decades has been remarkable. This paper characterizes the statistical nature of the inflation series in China over the past quarter of a century and presents an interesting scenario of large decline in inflation pass-through accompanied with low inflation since the end of the 1990s. How should monetary policy in China be conducted under these new economic conditions? We propose a discrete inflation-targeting framework for monetary policy,which is likely to be suitable for the regime of low inflation and inflation pass-through. The advantages and caveats of adopting such a framework are also discussed.     

The Mystery of Missing Real Spillovers in Southern Africa: Some Facts and Possible Explanations

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the economies of South Africa and its neighbours (Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) are tightly integrated with each other. The multiple interconnections suggest that South Africa's GDP growth rate should affect positively its neighbours'. However, our review of the available econometric evidence and our panel growth regressions suggest that there is no strong evidence of real spillovers in the region after 1994, once global shocks are controlled for. More generally, we find no evidence of real spillovers from South Africa to the rest of the continent post‐1994. We investigate the possible reasons for this lack of spillovers. Most importantly, the economies of South Africa and the rest of Sub‐Saharan Africa might have decoupled in the mid‐1990s. That is when international sanctions on South Africa ended and the country re‐integrated with the global economy, while growth in the rest of the continent accelerated due to a combination of domestic and external factors.     

结构性通货膨胀、流动性过剩及政策应对

文章首先论述了结构性通货膨胀在我国的表现形式,研究发现因部门瓶颈制约和劳动生产率增长水平差异导致结构性通货膨胀的机理;其次,从货币这个通胀的根本因素出发,分析出货币供大于求的流动性过剩对结构性通货膨胀起到助推作用,引起对农产品、房地产需求增加导致其价格大幅上涨;最后,为保持经济平稳发展,提出解决若干宏观经济政策选择方面的政策建议。     

Inflation Uncertainty and Monetary Policy in China

This paper uses a stochastic volatility model structural break tests with unknown point, and a counterfactual simulation method to discuss the significant decline in inflation uncertainty in China over 1978-2009. We attempt to quantify the contributions of better monetary policy and smaller structural shocks （including demand, supply and policy impacts） on the reduced inflation uncertainty. Empirical results in the present paper suggest that improved monetary policy accounts for only a small fraction of the reduction in inflation uncertainty from the pre-1997 period to the post-1997 period in China. The bulk of the significant moderation in inflation uncertainty arises from smaller shocks. This finding indicates that the quiescence of inflation in China over the past decade could well be followed by a return to a more turbulent inflation era. Therefore, the use of preemptive monetary policy to anchor inflationary expectations and keep moderate inflation uncertainty is warranted.     

Conditions for Optimality of a Currency Area

Two approaches to the theory of OCA are distinguished in this paper. The first, called the marginalistic approach, attempts to define the OCA from the point of view of a single country, and the second examines the optimality of a currency area of a given membership. The marginalistic approach and its limitations are discussed first. Then, the paper proceeds to the second approach which is discussed in the context of the cooperative game theory in characteristic function form; it argues that a currency area is optimal when the welfare functions of its constituent members are in the core. This implies that the welfare functions of all constituent members of the currency area are maximized and hence they are all better off with a common currency rather than with their own national currencies; hence, no member country has the intention to abandon the currency area. The paper concludes that the condition for the optimality of a currency area independently of the degree of economic similarity of its constituents requires that the characteristic function must exhibit non decreasing returns with respect to its size.     

货币错配与通货膨胀目标制的不可行性：针对我国现实

现阶段我国正面临人民币汇率稳定与物价稳定的"两难冲突",国内外一些学者主张我国应该采用通货膨胀目标制。从货币错配的角度探讨通货膨胀目标制在我国的可行性表明,由于存在较严重的货币错配及特殊的国情,现阶段我国尚不具备实行通货膨胀目标制的条件,短期内,通货膨胀目标制在我国并不具有可行性,货币政策适合以货币供应数量和价格作为混合使用的政策调控目标。     

货币“迷失”与我国货币、汇率政策选择

考察1985～2003年我国货币资金的“迷失”现象,可发现这种货币的迷失本身是由货币供给的内生性导致的,尤其是由于很大一部分迷失的货币没有进入实体经济部门、没有形成有效的货币供给导致的。我国大量存在的货币资金迷失现象动摇了蒙代尔—弗莱明模型和我国货币政策关于货币供给外生性的假设前提,这一方面使得蒙代尔不可能三角不再绝对成立,另一方面也削弱了我国货币政策实施的效果,货币政策当局在制定货币政策时有必要对此有所关注。     

信息不完全、通货膨胀目标制与货币政策声誉:跨国经验

20世纪90年代以来通行的通货膨胀目标制被认为是极具透明性、灵活性的货币政策框架，受到很多国家的推崇。本文验证通货膨胀目标制是否有助于建立货币政策声誉，构建一个基于信息不完全基础上的动态预期形成模型，通过对通货膨胀目标制能否引起结构性变化的七个发达国家的实证研究，发现政策声誉的建立是一个学习过程。通货膨胀目标制实行的时间越长，该政策对降低通货膨胀率，实现经济稳定增长越有效。     

Dollars for Sale: Exchange Rate Policy and Inflation in Africa

In Africa, the government is often the main provider of foreign exchange, acquired through aid or via a nationalized mining sector, although a parallel market is also usually active. A policy of indexing the official exchange rate on the parallel one is destabilizing, while a nominal anchor policy, has the opposite effect. Using the case of Nigeria, these stylized facts are interpreted in the light of an analytical model with rational expectations. The case of Guinea is also presented, as an example of where the nominal anchor policy has succeeded.