Inertial linkages between wages and inflation: Evidence from Brazil

Many observers of the Brazilian economy have suggested that wage growth causes inflation. Because wage growth is linked to past price growth, an inertial component is said to exist. The relationship between wage growth and inflation in Brazil over the period 1981–89 is examined. A model of wage growth and inflation is developed. Lagged effects of inflation on wage growth and a structural break in 1986 are tested for. The estimates suggest a lagged response of wages to prices in the pre-1986 period. However, in the post-1986 period, the response of wages to lagged inflation is not statistically different from zero and the contemporaneous response is not different from one.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at Fundacão Getulio Vargas and CEBRAP in São Paulo in August 1991. The author wishes to thank Tomàs Malaga, Carola Lame, Gesner Olivera, and Luis Bresser Periera for helpful comments. As well, the author wishes to acknowledge some critical input from Ann Witte and Alejandra Edwards. All errors, however, are the author's own.     

Economic research and economic growth: Evidence from East Asian economies

Based upon page counts of articles published in 60 quality economics journals, the role of economic research is examined for five East Asian economies. In Hong Kong, causality runs bi-directionally between research productivity and economic growth; in Japan, the causal effects tend to be one direction from economic growth to research publications; in Korea and Taiwan, causality runs the other way around from publications to growth; and in Singapore, the causal effects are small and insignificant. Socioeconomic differences in each economy help to explain the various causal directions found.     

Effectiveness and commitment to inflation targeting policy: Evidence from Indonesia and Thailand

The chief objective of our paper is to highlight basic features of the Information Technology (IT) policies adopted by Indonesia and Thailand, and to evaluate the commitment of the monetary authorities and the overall performances of the IT regime. The results demonstrate that the IT regime in these two economies has had some success, but not during the immediate aftermath of the Lehman Brothers’ collapse in the last quarter of 2008. Furthermore, the implementation IT policy in these economies has largely been “flexible” during the stable period, seeking the balance between narrowing the output gap, managing exchange rate volatility, and anchoring inflationary pressure. However during the turbulent period, there had been a heightened focus on anchoring inflationary expectations.     

Controlling inflation in transition economies: The relevance of central bank independence and the right nominal anchor

Controlling inflation is a central problem in transition economies. This paper asks under what conditions or even whether central bank independence helps in this task. The conclusion shows that merely imposing legal independence on the central bank may be ineffective or even counterproductive. It is necessary to make a monetary strategy and the responsibilities and restrictions of central bank policy transparent to the public. In addition, it is important that the right nominal anchor is selected—one that is, or is believed to be, effective and sustainable. Both monetary targeting and inflation targeting are assumed to be unsuitable for most transition countries. Instead, some kind of dynamic exchange rate targeting appears to be the most reasonable choice.     

The interdependence of national economies and the synchronization of economic fluctuations: Evidence from the LINK project

Zusammenfassung Die Interdependenz nationaler Volkswirtschaften und die Synchronisierung wirtschaftlicher Schwankungen: Ergebnisse aus dem LINK-Projekt. — In diesem Aufsatz werden Ergebnisse aus dem Projekt LINK über die internationale übertragung wirtschaftlicher Schwankungen und der Inflation vorgelegt und interpretiert. Die Hauptergebnisse stammen von Multiplikator-Simulationen der Wirkungen verschiedener Schocks auf das Realeinkommen und die Preise im In- und Ausland. Wir haben die LINK-Simulationen durch eine historische Untersuchung erg?nzt, in der wir den unterschiedlichen Grad der Synchronisation der Konjunkturzyklen in 16 Industriel?ndern w?hrend der letzten 25 Jahre analysieren und einige empirische Ergebnisse über die quantitative Bedeutung der Stillegung von Reserven zum Ausgleich unerwünschter Ver?nderungen der monet?ren Basis durch Devisenmarktinterventionen vorlegen. Die Multiplikatoranalysen konzentrieren sich auf die Modelle von Industriel?ndern, die in dem Projekt LINK enthalten sind. Die Modelle werden mit Hilfe eines zentralen Handelsmodells durch Au\enhandelsmengen und -preise verbunden. Auf diese Weise sind die internationalen Str?me von Gütern und Dienstleistungen — aber nicht die Kapitalstr?me — in dem LINK-System endogen. Die Wechselkurse sind exogen, so da\ die Multiplikatoren so interpretiert werden müssen, da\ sie auf ein System mit fixen oder manipuliert floatenden Wechselkursen anwendbar sind.

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Résumé L’interdépendance des économies nationales et la synchronisation des fluctuations économiques: L’évidence du projet LINK. — Dans cet article nous présentons et interprétons l’évidence du projet LINK concernant la transmission internationale des fluctuations économiques et de l’inflation. L’évidence principale base sur les simulations multiplicatrices des effets des chocs différents sur le revenu réel et les prix locaux et étrangers. Nous avons pris aussi l’opportunité de compléter les simulations LINK par une analyse historique du degré variant de synchronisation des cycles de la conjoncture dans 16 pays industrialisés pendant les 25 années passées et par quelque évidence empirique de l’importance quantitative de la stérilisation de réserve de compenser des changes indésirables de la base monétaire qui dérivent de l’intervention de change. L’analyse multiplicatrice se concentre sur les modèles structuraux des pays industrialisés compris dans le projet LINK. Les modèles sont liés aux quantités et aux prix des exportations et des importations par un modèle central de commerce extérieur. C’est pourquoi les flux internationaux des biens et des services sont endogènes dans le système LINK, mais les flux des capitaux ne le sont pas. Les taux de change sont exogènes, en manière que les multiplicateurs doivent être interprétés comme à appliquer à un régime des taux fixes ou des taux managés flottants.

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Resumen La interdependencia de economías nacionales y la sincronización de fluctuaciones económicas: evidencias del proyecto LINK. — En este artículo presentamos e interpretamos evidencias del proyecto LINK concernientes a la transmisión de fluctuaciones económicas e inflación. La evidencia principal es la de simulaciones multiplicadoras de los efectos de varios ?shocks? sobre el ingreso real y los precios, tanto internos como externos. También hemos tomado la oportunidad para complementar las simulaciones del LINK con un análisis histórico de variación del grado de sincronización de ciclos comerciales en 16 países industrializados a través de los últimos 25 a?os y con alguna evidencia empírica, de la importancia cuantitativa de la estirilización de reservas para neutralizar cambios no deseados en la base monetaria provenientes de intervenciones de moneda extranjera. Los analisis multiplicadores se concentran sobre los modelos estructurales de países industriales incluidos en el proyecto LINK. Los modelos están ligados por cantidades y precios de exportación y las importaciones por medio de un modelo de comercio central. De esta manera los flujos internacionales de bienes y servicios son endógenos en el sistema LINK, pero los flujos de capital no. Las tasas de cambio son exógenas, de tal manera que los multiplicadores deben interpretarse como correspondientes a un regimen de tipos de cambio fijos o flexibles manejados.

     

Exchange rates,price levels,and inflation targeting: Evidence from Asian countries

This study examines how the adoption of inflation-targeting influenced exchange rate pass-through and volatility in four Asian countries –Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand – over the sample period of January 1990 to June 2007. We find that adopting inflation targeting helped reduce pass-through in South Korea, and Thailand, while the results are less clear for Indonesia and the Philippines. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that inflation targeting caused a decline in exchange rate volatility in all four countries. The important lesson from the experiences of these Asian countries is that the adoption of inflation targeting contributes to achieving the ultimate goal of inflation stability through reducing exchange rate pass-through or variability.     

The permanent income hypothesis,business cycles,and regime shifts: Evidence from eight countries

Summary We provide international evidence on the joint behavior of consumption and the real rate of interest and examine the rational expectations restrictions of the permanent income hypothesis. We extend the basic model to allow for independent effects of the stage of the business cycle or a regime shift after 1979. In our eight-country sample (using 1970s–1980s data) we find a small but internationally similar rate of intertemporal substitution once we allow for a regime shift affecting the average growth of consumption after 1979. The rational expectations restrictions are formally rejected, most prominently for the United Kingdom and Japan.We thank Ivo Arnold, Eduard Bomhoff, Fanz Palm, Peter Schotman, Carlo Winder, and anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are of course our own.     

The Schweinkopf hypothesis: Empirical evidence and refutation from Mansakonko

One of the central theorems in statistics is challenged by reported observations from the community of Mansakonko. This ambiguity threatens the precision of economic projections and thus development programme management. A review of the Mansakonko case suggests that the data supporting these observations are as accurate as can be expected under field conditions. Practical consequences of the apparent theoretical inconsistency led to an international games‐playing situation in which a transitory win‐win solution was achieved. Further research (s suggested to definitively resolve the theoretical impasse.     

Stock prices and the efficient market hypothesis: Evidence from a panel stationary test with structural breaks

This paper investigates whether the efficient market hypothesis holds in stock markets under different economic development levels over the period January 1999 to May 2007. We employ a state-of-the-art panel data stationarity test which incorporates multiple structural breaks. Evidence indicates that when accommodating general forms of cross-sectional dependence as well as controlling for finite-sample bias, the real stock price series appear to be stationary in 32 developed and 26 developing countries, respectively, which is in sharp contrast to the findings in the existing literature. Thus, real stock price indices are stationary processes that are inconsistent with the efficient market hypothesis. This shows the presence of profitable arbitrage opportunities among stock markets. According to these estimated structural breakpoints, we are also able to discover the reason for why there has been a huge impact from past stock prices.     

The short-run impact of fluctuating primary commodity prices on three developing economies: Columbia,Ivory Coast and Kenya

Computable general equilibrium models are used to study the short-run impact of fluctuating primary commodity prices on the economies of Columbia, Ivory Coast and Kenya. The results indicate that these economies are destabilized by primary commodity price fluctuations unless governments act to hold real domestic absorption constant. To achieve this, however, would require foreign exchange reserves in excess of the level normally available to these governments for the purpose of stabilizing domestic economic activity.     

The Kuznets curve: Evidence from Prussia revisited

Conclusions To avoid confusion arising from mixing up methods, the methodological arsenal was restricted to the computation of percentiles as this was the favoured device in the Kuznets-paper. But with an increasing population the interpretation of rising percentiles is by no means straightforward (which is equally true with other measures of inequality). When the number of income-receiving units and their mean income are held constant, rising shares of the top-income receivers can be interpreted in terms of “rich people getting richer and poor people getting poorer”. But when both, the number of units and their mean income are rising, the interpretation of rising percentiles is quite a problem. For example, aggregating two populations with all percentiles alike (i.e. identical Lorenz curves) but different mean incomes would result in a greater population with increased shares of the top-income receivers and lessened shares of the low-income receivers (i.e. a Lorenz curve more close to the boundaries of the rectangle). It is obvious from this example that the welfare implications of increasing percentiles cannot be separated from the welfare implications of rising mean incomes. Especially, with rising populations and rising mean incomes the income shares of the top-income receivers may very well increase without any poor man getting poorer, so that not even Rawls [1971] would necessarily object to such a development. Bearing these limitations in mind, the outcomes of the previous sections may be summarized in confirming Kuznets’ surmise that income inequality in Prussia increased within the second half of the last century. Furthermore, it is emphasized that the peak was most probably reached around the turn of the century with the First World War merely fortifying the equalizing tendencies which originated from the economic development process itself.     

Small high technology firms in an era of rapid change: Evidence from Cambridge

There has been rapid change among Cambridge high technology firms. Aggregate data have been followed up in a longitudinal study and county-wide data on high technology industry are summarised. Until 1990 failure rates were low and there has been incremental growth among these firms, which are predominantly very small, and together with a few older firms provide county-wide employment in high technology for about 23,000 in 1992. High technology ventures have had difficulty obtaining funds on an independent basis, but investment in the form of acquisition by both British and foreign firms has been widespread. Firms in the Cambridge area may be serving international developments in technology transfer and innovation rather than invigorating the local and national economy.     

Changes in gender wage discrimination in the 1990s: A tale of three very different economies

In this paper gender wage decompositions are performed for three very different countries, that is, Japan, Russia and the USA for the years of 1993 and 2000, using the ISSP data set. From the research of this paper, it is shown that the gender wage differential in Japan has narrowed between 1993 and 2000, and the results reveal price and characteristics effects for this country that differ markedly from those observed elsewhere, with female disadvantage being particularly marked. Also, this paper finds that gender wage differentials in Russia and the USA have increased during the years considered here.     

The determinants of capital structure: Evidence from China

This paper employs a new database containing the market and accounting data (from 1994 to 2003) from more than 1200 Chinese-listed companies to document their capital structure characteristics. As in other countries, leverage in Chinese firms increases with firm size and fixed assets, and decreases with profitability, non-debt tax shields, growth opportunity, managerial shareholdings and correlates with industries. We also find that state ownership or institutional ownership has no significant impact on capital structure and Chinese companies consider tax effect in long-term debt financing. Different from those in other countries, Chinese firms tend to have much lower long-term debt.     

Price instability and inflation: The Latin American case

This paper provides empirical evidence substantiating the existence of an over-time relationship between inflation and price variability for 23 Latin American countries, by employing a novel measure of price instability based on price expectations.