Does inflation lower productivity? Time series evidence on the impact of inflation on labor productivity in 12 OECD nations

According to proponents of zero-inflation policies, even low rates of inflation create distortions in capital allocation and in price signals, which result in lower rates of productivity growth. This paper tests the hypothesis that inflation has a causal impact (in the Granger sense) on labor productivity growth in manufacturing for 12 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In bivariate tests of inflation and productivity and in multivariate tests using controls for cyclical effects, there is no evidence of a consistent relationship between inflation and productivity growth with regard to either sign or magnitude. Therefore, the present analysis does not support the view that further reductions in inflation from already low single-digit levels would have a positive impact on labor productivity growth for major industrial countries.     

Problems in choosing the government bond indexing method

The paper considers four classes of indexed internal government bonds. The emphasis is upon bonds adjusted for inflation and GDP growth rates. An original method for indexing low default-risk bonds is proposed.     

Uncertainty and Fiscal Policy in an Asymmetric Monetary Union

We examine monetary and fiscal interactions in a monetary union model with uncertainty due to imperfect central bank transparency. It is first shown that monetary uncertainty discourages excessive taxation and may thus reduce average inflation and output distortions. However, as countries enter the monetary union, this tax-restraining effect of uncertainty is mitigated. The monetary union may hence lead to higher fiscal distortions in some member countries, depending on governments’ spending targets and on the change in the degree of uncertainty implied by common monetary policy.     

Credibility and monetary policy in a model with growth

We examine the implications for monetary policy design of includinglearning-by-doing effects in a macroeconomic model. We showthat an inflation bias arises because monetary surprises maybe exploited to maximise potential output by temporarily raisingthe rate of human capital accumulation. Our model also providesan alternative explanation for the empirical evidence linkinginflation and growth, where the causal link goes from slow growthto high inflation. Unlike traditional credibility models, aninflationary bias can persist even when the authorities do notwish to offset labour market distortions through monetary surpriseswhich undercut the median voter's income.     

Easing Countries' Transitions From Price Controls and Subsidies

In transitional economies, initial popular support of market reforms is often followed by disillusionment and repudiation of the reform program. To facilitate economic transition, this paper proposes a marketable discount coupon system (DCS) that reassures the public, even as an economy moves from nonmarket to market prices. Unlike price controls, subsidies, or ration coupons, DCS involves no queuing or allocative distortions. Unlike vouchers, DCS would not be negated by inflation. To avoid distortions, discount coupons would be marketable and redeemable, even without purchase of specific products. This procedure permits efficient adjustment of domestic prices to international levels.     

Price Stability and the Case for Flexible Exchange Rates

We revisit Friedman’s case for flexible exchange rates in a small open economy with several distortions and rigidities and a variety of domestic and external shocks. We find that, for external shocks, the flexible exchange rate regime outperforms the fixed regime independent of the source of domestic nominal rigidities provided that the monetary authorities pursue a policy of strict inflation targeting. For domestic supply shocks, a joint policy of a flexible exchange rate and strict inflation targeting fares well when the main source of nominal rigidities is in the domestic goods markets, but not if rigidities arise in the labor markets.     

Core Import Price Inflation in the United States

The cross-section distribution of U.S. import prices exhibits some of the fat-tailed characteristics that are well documented for the cross-section distribution of U.S. consumer prices. This suggests that limited-influence estimators of core import price inflation might outperform headline or traditional measures of core import price inflation. We examine whether limited influence estimators of core import price inflation help forecast overall import price inflation. They do not. However, limited influence estimators of core import price inflation do seem to have some predictive power for headline consumer price inflation in the medium term.     

The effects of unemployment and inflation on the income distribution: A regional view

VI. Summary and Conclusions The behavior of the U.S. income distribution over the business cycle has been the subject of several previous studies. However, a facet of these inquiries which has not been viewed is the geographical effects within the U.S. The diverse economic characteristics of the country have contributed to uneven inflationary and unemployment experiences among the respective regions during the national business cycles. The purpose of this study has been to model the regional income inequality responses to the distinct macroeconomic records for the years 1968–1976. One general consequence of this study is the conformation of earlier work suggesting that in some settings increases in the unemployment rate tend to increase the extent of income inequality and that inflation tends to reduce the extent of such inequality. Another result, however, has not been anticipated: namely, that regional inflation and unemployment had a waker impact on the income distribution the more unequal the distribution. For example, the weakest effects of the business cycle were observed for the South, and it was the Southern region which had the greatest income inequality. The North Central region, on the other hand, showed the greatest sensitivity to the business cycle, and it has the most equal income distribution.¹² Such geographical disaggregation seems important in understanding the varied implicit distributional effects within the U.S. when macroeconomic policy is aimed at reducing unemployment and inflation.     

Monetary Policy and Natural Disasters in a DSGE Model

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, speculation arose that the Federal Reserve might respond by easing monetary policy. This article uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to investigate the appropriate monetary policy response to a natural disaster. We show that the standard Taylor rule response in models with and without nominal rigidities is to increase the nominal interest rate. That finding is unchanged when we consider the optimal policy response to a disaster. A nominal interest rate increase following a disaster mitigates both temporary inflation effects and output distortions that are attributable to nominal rigidities.     

Inflation as the lesser evil

Abstract

The authors of this analysis of the German inflation seek to show the interdependence between the various factors which made that hyper-inflation possible, and the effects of the inflation on production, employment and the distribution of incomes. They reject an explanation of the German inflation in terms of the quantity theory which was widely held in the inter-war years. Instead they attempt to explain developments by showing the inter-relationship between the balance of payments, rates of exchange and the trend of internal prices and wages. According to this balance of payments theory, the supply of money will passively adjust itself to a rise in the level of prices and wages, the government budgetary deficit brought about by the faster rate of increase in prices and wages than in tax revenue being financed inter alia by the issue of notes.     

扩大内需的着力点——提高劳动力价格

扩张性财政政策和宽松的货币政策一度成为解决“内需”问题的良药。但实践证明,这种治标不治本的凯恩斯主义的药方最终会导致通货膨胀,不能根治经济中内需不足的问题。文章通过对国民收入分配中劳动者所处地位的分析,得出我国内需不足的问题来自于收入分配的问题。因此,扩大内需的着力点在于提高劳动力价格。     

Inflation,indexing and economic development

Recent analyses have established that there are significant costs as well as benefits to issuing indexed bonds. An assessment of the desirability of indexing hasproven to be clusive, perhaps because of the complexity involved in formulating the (presumably government) preferences by which indexing is to be evaluated and in ascertaining the optimal government policy with which to accompany indexing. This paper develops a general framework for examining indexed bonds. The envelope theorem is exploited to derive a convenient representation of the effects of indexing. The crucial elements in evaluating indexed bonds are the relative desirabilities of transferring purchasing power to the government and reducing consumer liquidity. The greater is the relative importance placed on the former, the more likely are the effects of indexed bonds to be favorably evaluated.     

通货膨胀预期的运行特征及其对我国货币政策的启示

国内学者就我国经济转型时期通货膨胀预期的运行特征展开了初步研究。文章对这一领域的研究成果进行了理论概括,认为通胀预期主体的分层性、通胀预期基础的混沌性、通胀预期过程的持续性、通胀预期强度的波动性是我国当前通货膨胀预期的基本特征。现阶段通胀预期强化的直接原因在于过度宽松的货币政策。弱化通胀预期、缓解通胀压力的短期措施是货币政策尽快转向正常化。     

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。     

A nonlinear ARDL model of inflation dynamics in the Philippine economy

This study investigated whether global oil price changes, exchange rate, interest rate, and economic output exert symmetric or asymmetric pass-through effects on inflation in the Philippines. A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model was fitted to the observable data using quarterly observations from 1998 to 2019. Knowledge of these relationships is important in monetary policy setting in achieving targeted inflation; the Philippines adopted inflation targeting in 2002. The finding shows that world oil price shocks are still prominent and the most important determinants of inflation variations in the country. There is prima facie evidence on the short-run asymmetry of oil price changes to inflation. Exchange rate pass-through to inflation was very minimal in the short-run, and there is no long-run effect. Evidence that interest rate and demand shocks have a long-run asymmetric effect on inflation was found. These findings imply that monetary policy setting should account for the asymmetric effects of inflation determinants. Study results provide a deeper understanding of how positive and negative changes of inflation determinants affect actual inflation, which aids policymakers in achieving targeted inflation.     

How should Central Banks Respond to Non-neutral Inflation Expectations?

This paper investigates the net real inflation effect on output in ten countries, comprising both advanced and developing countries. An indicator is introduced to compute the net inflation effect on output (NIEO) based on the difference between two concepts of core inflation, where both are computed using the decomposition of VAR residuals. We find that for all countries, when inflation is increasing the NIEO is significantly positive and is negative during periods of decreasing inflation. Typically, countries which follow anti-inflationary policies if the NIEO is of small magnitude suffer relatively minimal damage in output, whereas if the same policies are undertaken when the NIEO is large the damaging effects on output could be much greater. This suggests that the NIEO could be a useful indicator of the likely effects of policy, especially for countries which have frequent episodes of high inflation, and in those countries which employ inflation-targeting policy, as the timing of monetary policy actions could be optimized to take account of this real effect of inflation.     

Non-productive consumption loans and threshold effects in the inflation-growth relationship

Recent empirical evidence indicates that two inflation thresholdsexist in the inflation-growth relationship. Pre-existing theoreticalmodels, however, fail to generate such a pattern. By addingconsumption loans (which are non-productive) into a standardmodel of imperfect information, this paper finds that an increasein the inflation rate may increase, decrease, or have no significanteffect on economic growth for inflation rates below a thresholdlevel; however, for inflation rates higher than this thresholdlevel, an increase in the inflation rate significantly reduceseconomic growth. Moreover, the marginal impact of an increasein the inflation rate in terms of reducing economic growth increaseswith the rise in the inflation rate, until the inflation ratesreach the second threshold level, from which such a marginaleffect significantly decreases. These results accord well withrecent empirical evidence.     

金融非均衡下我国通货膨胀的治理

当前金融非均衡现象在我国经济运行中日益突出,其发展对货币政策最终目标——通货膨胀和金融稳定产生重大影响。文章分析了金融非均衡与通货膨胀相互关系的内在机理,实证分析也表明金融非均衡是通货膨胀的格兰杰原因,最后从信贷、房价、股价三个角度提出降低金融非均衡发展,来降低通货膨胀压力。     

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.     

Goods Inflation,Asset Inflation,and the Greatest Peacetime Inflation in the US

In every episode of global monetary inflation originating in the Federal Reserve, we find both asset price inflation and goods inflation. The interrelationship between these two types of inflation depends both on cycle-specific factors and more general factors which transcend the cycle and stem from essential aspects of monetary disorder. The purpose of this article is to analyse the nature of this interrelationship and elaborate on the concepts of monetary disorder, goods inflation, and asset inflation. In today’s world of monetary systems where there is no stable demand for high-powered money (which itself is no longer a highly distinct asset) monetary disorder can be hard to recognize until quite late in the inflationary process. Asset price inflation now has a popular meaning quite different from the original found in Austrian business cycle theory. Two decades of widespread inflation targeting at around 2% per annum have encouraged us to ignore an old lesson. In a well-functioning capitalist economy under a sound money order, prices would fluctuate considerably upwards and downwards with a tendency to revert to the mean over the very long run. Finally the principles and hypotheses developed here are analysed in the laboratory of history, specifically for the greatest peacetime inflation in the U.S. (1963–80).