Inflation Targeting and Inflation Uncertainty

This article empirically investigates the impact of inflation targeting on inflation uncertainty. We implement PARCH and GARCH methodologies to model conditional variance of inflation. We also investigate the relationship between level and volatility of inflation to analyze the validity of the Friedman hypothesis for IT countries. We find that most of the inflation targeting countries have significantly lower inflation variances after inflation targeting. In most of the IT countries, the relationship is consistent with the Friedman hypothesis.     

A Note on Inflation Targeting

The authors present a pedagogical graphical exposition to illustrate the stabilizing effect of price target zones. Based on a textbook AD-AS apparatus, they find that authorities' commitment to defend a price target zone will affect the public's inflation expectations and, in turn, reduce actual inflation. They also find that, when the economy experiences supply shocks, the announcement that the monetary authorities intend to defend a price target zone will reduce the variability of domestic prices but raise the variability of domestic output relative to a free-price regime. However, when the economy experiences demand shocks, a price target zone tends to lower the variability of both domestic prices and out-put relative to a free-price regime.     

A Union-bashing Model of Inflation Targeting

This paper shows that in an open two‐sector economy, centralization of wage setting may be important in determining the employment (and welfare) effects of different monetary targets. By disciplining unions in the sectors open to international trade, exchange rate targeting yields higher employment than inflation targeting when wage‐setting is more centralized in the open sector than in the shielded sector. When wage‐setting centralization is higher in the shielded sector, we show that general price‐level inflation targeting, while better than exchange rate targeting, is inferior to an inflation target that focuses more heavily on shielded sector prices.     

Inflation Targeting as a Framework for Monetary Policy: A Cross-Country Analysis

This study makes use of a dynamic Taylor‐type model to examine the conduct of monetary policy by central banks that profess to engage in inflation targeting. Previous research regarding inflation targeting and Taylor‐type rules is reviewed and a dynamic Taylor‐type model is developed. Tests for regime shifts upon the adoption of inflation targeting indicate a significant change in policy in each of the nations in the study for which sufficient data were available. Next, the central bank reaction functions were estimated. Results suggest that most of the central banks conducted a policy of inflation targeting by seeking to contain inflationary pressures rather than reacting to current inflation.     

Inflation Targeting: Some Extensions

Previous analyses of the implementation of inflation targeting are extended to monetary policy responses to different shocks, consequences of model uncertainty, and effects of interest rate smoothing and stabilization. Model uncertainty, output stabilization, and interest rate stabilization or smoothing all call for a more gradual adjustment of the conditional inflation forecast toward the inflation target. The conditional inflation forecast is the natural intermediate target during inflation targeting. The optimal way of reacting to shocks is hence to check how they affect the inflation forecast and then take the appropriate action.
JEL classification : E 42; E 52; E 58     

中国通胀水平与通胀不确定性:马尔柯夫域变分析

本文使用中国1985年以来月度数据,基于马尔柯夫域变模型考察了通胀水平及其与不确定性的关系。我们将通胀的不确定性分解为两类成分:未来通胀冲击的不确定性和未来通胀均值域变的不确定性。研究结果表明,高的通胀水平伴随着这两类不确定性成分的同时增大,这意味着通胀成本很大程度上和不确定性的成本联系在一起,稳定价格和维持低通胀环境可能成为央行减少不确定性的重要手段。本文结果还表明,域变模型相对线性自回归模型以及ARCH模型更好地刻画了中国通胀率过程的特点。以往应用中忽略了这种域变特点可能导致通胀预测值相对于真实值的系统性偏差,或者通胀不确定性的错误估计。     

Teaching Inflation Targeting: An Analysis for Intermediate Macro

Over the last decade, many central banks have adopted policies known as inflation targeting. If intermediate-level macroeconomics students are to be prepared to think about current policy issues, it is important to provide them with an introduction to the macroeconomic implications of inflation targeting. Unfortunately, the standard aggregate demand-aggregate supply frameworks commonly used to teach intermediate macroeconomics are not well suited for this task because they are expressed in terms of output and the price level and because they fail to make explicit the policy objectives of the central bank. The author provides a simple graphical device involving the output gap and the inflation rate that overcomes these problems and that can be used to teach intermediate macroeconomics students about inflation targeting.     

Inflation Targeting versus Nominal Income Targeting

In this paper we analyze two different target regimes, flexible inflation targeting and nominal income targeting, under discretion in a simple dynamic macro model. The key results of our paper are: First, for both targeting regimes optimal monetary policy response leads to a shock-dependent feedback rule. Second, a demand shock is completely offset by both monetary strategies. Third, in case of a supply shock there is a significant difference between the two different targeting regimes. Under inflation targeting the policy makers face a trade-off between inflation and output stabilization. This trade-off depends on the weight Φ the policy makers attach to output stabilization relative to inflation stabilization in the loss function. In contrast, under nominal income targeting policy makers face a constant trade-off between inflation and real output growth: an increase in inflation leads to a fall in real output growth by an equal amount. Furthermore, in Appendix A we analyze a (linear) commitment solution for inflation targeting and compare it with the discretionary case. Under commitment, inflation is smaller and the output gap is larger than under discretion. In Appendix B, we investigate inflation targeting in a two-period time-lag version of the model. The qualitative results on the trade-off between inflation and output growth remain the same as in the basic model without time lag. Received May 3, 2000; revised version received December 3, 2001 Published online: February 17, 2003     

货币增长不确定性与通货膨胀不确定性——“波动溢出”假说与实证检验

文章基于通货膨胀——通货膨胀不确定性关系的理论研究,提出货币增长不确定性向通货膨胀不确定性波动溢出的计量检验假说,并利用中国数据,运用多元GARCH模型进行实证检验。结果发现,存在货币增长不确定性显著向通货膨胀不确定性波动溢出的效应。这意味着,货币增长不确定性具有提供有关预测通货膨胀不确定性信息的能力。同时也表明,货币增长不确定性是通货膨胀不确定性的重要解释变量,其重要性不应被忽视。实证结论的政策含义是:减少货币增长不确定性是降低通货膨胀不确定性的重要途径,我国20世纪90年代中后期稳健的货币政策所带来的通货膨胀不确定性显著降低的现实支持了这个观点。     

Inflation Targeting and Regional Inflation Persistence: Evidence from Korea

The adoption of a credible monetary policy regime such as inflation targeting is known to reduce the persistence of inflation fluctuations. This conclusion, however, is typically derived from aggregate inflation or sectoral inflation rates, not from regional inflation data. This paper studies the regional dimension of inflation targeting; that is, the consequences of inflation targeting for regional inflation persistence. Based on data for Korean cities and provinces it is shown that the adoption of inflation targeting leads: (i) to a fall in inflation persistence at the regional level; and (ii) to a reduction in the cross‐regional heterogeneity in inflation persistence. A factor model lends further support to the role of the common component, and, hence, monetary policy, for regional inflation persistence.     

Some Thoughts on Monetary Targeting vs. Inflation Targeting

We offer some empirical evidence on the likely scale of control and indicator problems surrounding alternative monetary targets and a direct inflation target. The links between monetary policy actions and inflation are estimated in dynamic linear models using the Kalman filter. We compare alternative intermediate-target and final-target monetary strategies using German data from the end of the Bretton Woods system until 1997. The estimation results show that broad money dominates narrow money as an intermediate target, while control problems involved in targeting broad money are larger than for direct inflation targets.     

A Time Series Analysis of the Relationship between Inflation Uncertainty and Unemployment

This paper examines the empirical relationship between inflation uncertainty and unemployment rates. We find supportive evidence of a significant positive association between inflation uncertainty and unemployment, but this relationship depends critically on three factors. First, the inflation uncertainty-unemployment relationship is not significant before the mid-1970s. Second, the inflation uncertainty-unemployment relationship does not hold across all single digit SIC industries. And third, the inflation uncertainty-unemployment relationship is concentrated at business cycle and long-run components of the data, rather than high-frequency components.     

Time Series Analysis of Inflation Targeting in Selected Countries

Abstract

We analyze a set of countries which adopted inflation targeting (IT) as a policy tool. We model the pre‐IT period with ARMA and GARCH methods, and conduct the one‐step ahead forecasting for the remainder of the times series data. The actual and forecasted inflation levels are compared for each country. We find that even though the actual inflation levels are lower than the forecasted ones, there is no statistical evidence to suggest that the adoption of IT causes a structural break in the inflation levels of the countries which adopt IT.     

通货膨胀目标制在中国的适用性分析

近几年,国内学术界建议政府采纳通货膨胀目标制的呼声越来越高。由通货膨胀目标制的内涵出发,客观地阐述通货膨胀目标制的优越性,根据中国当前的具体国情及其适用条件,通货膨胀目标制在中国暂时尚缺乏可行性。     

中国通货膨胀率及其波动关系分析

有关通货膨胀率和通货膨胀率波动影响关系,存在F riedm an-B a ll和Cuk ierm an-M e ltzer两种假说,即存在通货膨胀率及其波动的相互影响关系。使用GARCH和TGARCH模型,选择中国1993~2004年月度通货膨胀率数据,检验结果表明F riedm an-B a ll假说成立,稳健的货币政策对经济发展有积极作用。     

台湾推行通胀目标制的实证分析

随着金融全球化的发展,台湾现行货币政策运行机制的弊端日益显露。目前,金融先进国家大多采用通胀目标制作为货币政策运行的机制,笔者根据台湾经济的发展现状,通过实证分析认为,台湾可以把通胀目标制作为货币政策运行机制的现实选择。     

The Dynamics Between Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty: Evidence from India

This study examines the causal nexus between inflation and inflation uncertainty. In this regard, conventional Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (GARCH) models and Stochastic Volatility (SV) models are used to measure inflation uncertainty and Bai and Perron (Econometrica 66:47–78, 1998; J Appl Econom 18:1–22, 2003) test is used to identify structural breaks in inflation. The empirical evidence derived from the monthly data for the period from June 1961 to April 2011 suggests that the measure of inflation uncertainty obtained from SV model is more reliable than the measure obtained from GARCH model and also the causal nexus between inflation and inflation uncertainty seems to be significantly conditional upon the measure of uncertainty used. The structural break test identifies four episodes of inflation during the sample period, and the causality between inflation and its variability varies across different episodes. The inflation and its variance seem to be independent of each other during the first two regimes that cover the period from 1960 to 1980 and on the contrary, during the later period largely bidirectional causality is observed. Further, inflation seems to exert positive impact on inflation uncertainty, whereas inflation uncertainty has negative impact on inflation.

     

通货膨胀不确定性及其对宏观经济的影响

利用马尔科夫范式转换模型分析了1985年1月到2009年7月我国通货膨胀的状态转换特征,并考察了与之伴随的不确定性及其对我国主要宏观经济变量的影响,发现通货膨胀不确定性仅对消费波动有显著影响,对投资和净出口的影响不显著,且方差不确定性和均值不确定性分别导致了消费波动增大与减小.通货膨胀不确定性凸显了宏观调控的重要性,积极、有效、透明的政策能够减少消费所面临的不确定性,保证居民消费的稳定和可持续增长,将有助于扩大内需,促进我国经济增长.     

Regime Dependent Effects of Inflation Uncertainty on Real Growth: A Markov Switching Approach

We empirically investigate the effects of inflation uncertainty on output growth for the United States between 1960 and 2012. Modeling output dynamics within a Markov regime switching framework, we provide evidence that inflation uncertainty exerts a negative and regime‐dependent impact on output growth. A battery of sensitivity checks confirm our findings.     

通货膨胀目标制实践经验的国际考察

作为一种新型的货币政策制度框架,标准型通货膨胀目标制在全球的中央银行中已经获得了一定的认同.然而迄今为止,我们还缺乏一个对目前大量的通货膨胀目标制实践经验进行简洁而全面的概括,借以对货币政策的实践和通货膨胀目标钉住者的前景展望提供相应指南.而这种指南之所以必要,是因为队伍不断庞大的发展中国家和新兴市场经济体正在考虑是否采纳通货膨胀目标制.借鉴标准型通货膨胀目标制国家在控制通货膨胀过程中所积累的经验,探讨通货膨胀目标制国家面临的主要问题、发展趋势、政策实践,其目的是为了从国家的角度来思考是否应该采纳通货膨胀目标制;而对于已经实施通货膨胀目标制的国家,则要考虑如何健全这一制度框架.