Showing papers on "Real interest rate published in 2010"

Inflation-Gap Persistence in the US

Abstract: We estimate vector autoregressions with drifting coefficients and stochastic volatility to investigate whether US inflation persistence has changed. We focus on the inflation gap, defined as the difference between inflation and trend inflation, and we measure persistence in terms of short- to medium-term predictability. We present evidence that inflation-gap persistence increased during the Great Inflation and that it fell after the Volcker disinflation. We interpret these changes using a dynamic new Keynesian model that highlights the importance of changes in the central bank's inflation target. (JEL E12, E31, E52, E58)

A Habit-Based Explanation of the Exchange Rate Risk Premium

Abstract: This paper presents a model that reproduces the uncovered interest rate parity puz zle. Investors have preferences with external habits. Countercyclical risk premia and procyclical real interest rates arise endogenously. During bad times at home, when domestic consumption is close to the habit level, the representative investor is very risk averse. When the domestic investor is more risk averse than her foreign coun terpart, the exchange rate is closely tied to domestic consumption growth shocks. The domestic investor therefore expects a positive currency excess return. Because interest rates are low in bad times, expected currency excess returns increase with interest rate differentials. ACCORDING TO THE UNCOVERED INTEREST RATE PARITY (UIP) CONDITION, the ex pected change in exchange rates should be equal to the interest rate differen tial between foreign and domestic risk-free bonds. The UIP condition implies that a regression of exchange rate changes on interest rate differentials should produce a slope coefficient of one. Instead, empirical work following Hansen and Hodrick (1980) and Fama (1984) consistently reveals a slope coefficient that is smaller than one and very often negative. The international economics

Can Cheap Credit Explain the Housing Boom

Abstract: Between 1996 and 2006, real housing prices rose by 53 percent according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency price index. One explanation of this boom is that it was caused by easy credit in the form of low real interest rates, high loan-to-value levels and permissive mortgage approvals. We revisit the standard user cost model of housing prices and conclude that the predicted impact of interest rates on prices is much lower once the model is generalized to include mean-reverting interest rates, mobility, prepayment, elastic housing supply, and credit-constrained home buyers. The modest predicted impact of interest rates on prices is in line with empirical estimates, and it suggests that lower real rates can explain only one-fifth of the rise in prices from 1996 to 2006. We also find no convincing evidence that changes in approval rates or loan-to-value levels can explain the bulk of the changes in house prices, but definitive judgments on those mechanisms cannot be made without better corrections for the endogeneity of borrowers' decisions to apply for mortgages.

Monetary Policy and Stock Market Booms

Abstract: Historical data and model simulations support the following conclusion. In‡ation is low during stock market booms, so that an interest rate rule that is too narrowly focused on in‡ation destabilizes asset markets and the broader economy. Adjustments to the interest rate rule can remove this source of welfare-reducing instability. For example, allowing an independent role for credit growth (beyond its role in constructing the in‡ation forecast) would reduce the volatility of output and asset prices. JEL numbers: E42, E58

Does Inflation Targeting Anchor Long-Run Inflation Expectations? Evidence from the U.S., UK, and Sweden

Abstract: We investigate the extent to which inflation expectations have been more firmly anchored in the United Kingdom–-a country with an explicit inflation target–-than in the United States–-a country with no such target–-using the difference between far-ahead forward rates on nominal and inflation-indexed bonds as a measure of compensation for expected inflation and inflation risk at long horizons. We show that far-ahead forward inflation compensation in the U.S. exhibits substantial volatility, especially at low frequencies, and displays a highly significant degree of sensitivity to economic news. Similar patterns are evident in the UK prior to 1997, when the Bank of England was not independent, but have been strikingly absent since the Bank of England gained independence in 1997. Our findings are further supported by comparisons of dispersion in longer-run inflation expectations of professional forecasters and by evidence from Sweden, another inflation-targeting country with a relatively long history of inflation-indexed bonds. Our results support the view that an explicit and credible inflation target helps to anchor the private sector's views regarding the distribution of long-run inflation outcomes. (JEL: E31, E52, E58)

Inflation Expectations and Risk Premiums in an Arbitrage-Free Model of Nominal and Real Bond Yields †

Abstract: Differences between yields on comparable-maturity U.S. Treasury nominal and real debt, the so-called breakeven inflation (BEI) rates, are widely used indicators of inflation expectations. However, better measures of inflation expectations could be obtained by subtracting inflation risk premiums from the BEI rates. We provide such decompositions using an estimated affine arbitrage-free model of the term structure that captures the pricing of both nominal and real Treasury securities. Our empirical results suggest that long-term inflation expectations have been well anchored over the past few years, and inflation risk premiums, although volatile, have been close to zero on average.

New Keynesian Macroeconomics and the Term Structure

Abstract: This article complements the structural New-Keynesian macro framework with a no-arbitrage affine term structure model. Whereas our methodology is general, we focus on an extended macro-model with an unobservable time varying inflation target and the natural rate of output which are filtered from macro and term structure data. We obtain large and significant estimates of the Phillips curve and real interest rate response parameters. Our model also delivers strong contemporaneous responses of the entire term structure to various macroeconomic shocks. The inflation target dominates the variation in the "level factor" whereas the monetary policy shocks dominate the variation in the "slope and curvature factors".

Modeling Inflation after the Crisis

Abstract: In the United States, the rate of price inflation falls in recessions. Turning this observation into a useful inflation forecasting equation is difficult because of multiple sources of time variation in the inflation process, including changes in Fed policy and credibility. We propose a tightly parameterized model in which the deviation of inflation from a stochastic trend (which we interpret as long-term expected inflation) reacts stably to a new gap measure, which we call the unemployment recession gap. The short-term response of inflation to an increase in this gap is stable, but the long-term response depends on the resilience, or anchoring, of trend inflation. Dynamic simulations (given the path of unemployment) match the paths of inflation during post-1960 downturns, including the current one.

Inflation Risk Premia and Survey Evidence on Macroeconomic Uncertainty

Abstract: The difference between nominal and real interest rates (break-even inflation) is often used to gauge the market's inflation expectations - and has become an important tool in monetary policy analysis. However, break-even inflation can move in response to shifts in inflation risk premia and liquidity premia as well as to changes in expected inflation. This paper sheds light on this issue by analysing the evolution of US break-even inflation from 1997 to mid-2008. Regression results show that survey data on inflation uncertainty and proxies for liquidity premia are important factors.

Determinants of Agricultural and Mineral Commodity Prices

Abstract: Prices of most agricultural and mineral commodities rose strongly in the past decade, peaking sharply in 2008. Popular explanations included strong global growth (especially from China and India), easy monetary policy (as reflected in low real interest rates or expected inflation), a speculative bubble (resulting from bandwagon expectations) and risk (possibly resulting from geopolitical uncertainties). Motivated in part by this episode, this paper presents a theory that allows a role for macroeconomic determinants of real commodity prices, along the lines of the “overshooting” model: the resulting model includes global GDP and the real interest rate as macroeconomic factors. Our model also includes microeconomic determinants; we include inventory levels, measures of uncertainty, and the spot-forward spread. We estimate the equation in a variety of different ways, for eleven individual commodities. Although two macroeconomic fundamentals – global output and inflation – both have positive effects on real commodity prices, the fundamentals that seem to have the most consistent and strongest effects are microeconomic variables: volatility, inventories, and the spot-forward spread. There is also some evidence of a bandwagon effect.

Does Inflation Targeting Affect the Dispersion of Inflation Expectations

Abstract: In this paper, we examine the effect of having an inflation targeting framework on the dispersion of inflation forecasts from professional forecasters. We use a panel data set of 25 countries—including 14 inflation targeters—with 16 years of monthly information. We find that the dispersion of long-run inflation expectations is smaller in targeting regimes after controlling for country-specific effects, time-specific effects, the level and the variance of inflation, disinflation periods, and global inflation. On average, the full effect is not observed until the third year after implementation of inflation targeting. When we differentiate between developed and developing countries, the dispersion of inflation expectations after inflation targeting is smaller and statistically significant only in developing countries.

Inflation Risk and the Inflation Risk Premium

Abstract: This article starts by discussing the concept of “inflation hedging” and provides some estimates of “inflation betas” for standard bond and well-diversified equity indices for over 45 countries. We show that such standard securities are poor inflation hedges. Expanding the menu of assets to foreign bonds, real estate and gold only improves matters marginally. This indicates a potentially important role for inflation index linked bonds. We then briefly discuss the pros and cons of such bonds, focusing the discussion mostly on the situation in the US, which started to issue Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS in short) in 1997. We argue that it is hard to negate the benefits of such securities for all relevant parties, unless the market in which they trade is highly deficient, which was actually the case in its early years in the US. Finally, we describe how state-of-the-art term structure research has tried to uncover estimates of the inflation risk premium. Most studies, including very recent ones that actually use inflation-linked bonds and information in surveys to gauge inflation expectations, find the inflation risk premium to be sizable and to substantially vary through time. This implies that governments should normally lower their financing costs through the issuance of index-linked bonds, at least in an ex-ante sense.

Notes on using the hidden asset or the contribution asset to compile the actuarial balance for pay-as-you-go pension systems

Abstract: The aim of this paper is twofold: to determine the connection between the �contribution asset� and the �hidden asset� and to discover whether using either of them to compile the actuarial balance in Swedish-type pay-as-you-go pension systems will provide a reliable solvency indicator. We develop an overlapping generations model and apply it to the defined benefit payas- you-go system, although it would be just as valid for defined contribution systems. On the theoretical side the main conclusion is that, despite their very different natures, in a simplified scenario the hidden asset and the contribution asset may nearly coincide under the assumption that, at the limit, r (the interest rate of the financial market) tends upwards towards G (the growth of the covered wage bill). On the applied side there are three main reasons why it would be better to use the contribution asset to calculate the Swedish-type actuarial balance as a solvency indicator: it has a financial-actuarial basics in the pay-as-you-go pension system as there is no need to use the real rate of interest; it is simple to calculate as there is no need for projections to be made; and it is clear in diagnosing solvency, whereas the hidden asset supplies a solvency indicator which is not always consistent with the system's financial health.

Relative Goods' Prices, Pure Inflation, and the Phillips Correlation

Abstract: This paper uses a dynamic factor model for the quarterly changes in consumption goods’ prices to separate them into three independent components: idiosyncratic relative-price changes, a low-dimensional index of aggregate relative-price changes, and an index of equiproportional changes in all inflation rates, that we label “pure” inflation. The paper estimates the model on U.S. data since 1959, and it presents a simple structural model that relates the three components of price changes to fundamental economic shocks. We use the estimates of the pure inflation and aggregate relative-price components to answer two questions. First, what share of the variability of inflation is associated with each component, and how are they related to conventional measures of monetary policy and relative-price shocks? We find that pure inflation accounts for 15-20% of the variability in inflation while our aggregate relative-price index accounts most of the rest. Conventional measures of relative prices are strongly but far from perfectly correlated with our relative-price index; pure inflation is only weakly correlated with money growth rates, but more strongly correlated with nominal interest rates. Second, what drives the Phillips correlation between inflation and measures of real activity? We find that the Phillips correlation essentially disappears once we control for goods’ relative-price changes. This supports modern theories of inflation dynamics based on price rigidities and many consumption goods.

The impact of high and growing government debt on economic growth: an empirical investigation for the euro area

Abstract: This paper investigates the average impact of government debt on per-capita GDP growth in twelve euro area countries over a period of about 40 years starting in 1970. It finds a non-linear impact of debt on growth with a turning point—beyond which the government debt-to-GDP ratio has a deleterious impact on long-term growth—at about 90-100% of GDP. Confidence intervals for the debt turning point suggest that the negative growth effect of high debt may start already from levels of around 70-80% of GDP, which calls for even more prudent indebtedness policies. At the same time, there is evidence that the annual change of the public debt ratio and the budget deficit-to-GDP ratio are negatively and linearly associated with per-capita GDP growth. The channels through which government debt (level or change) is found to have an impact on the economic growth rate are: (i) private saving; (ii) public investment; (iii) total factor productivity (TFP) and (iv) sovereign long-term nominal and real interest rates. From a policy perspective, the results provide additional arguments for debt reduction to support longer-term economic growth prospects. JEL Classification: H63, O40, E62, E43

Determinants of Agricultural and Mineral Commodity Prices

Abstract: Prices of most agricultural and mineral commodities rose strongly in the past decade, peaking sharply in 2008. Popular explanations included strong global growth (especially from China and India), easy monetary policy (as reflected in low real interest rates or expected inflation), a speculative bubble (resulting from bandwagon expectations) and risk (possibly resulting from geopolitical uncertainties). Motivated in part by this episode, this paper presents a theory that allows a role for macroeconomic determinants of real commodity prices, along the lines of the “overshooting†model: the resulting model includes global GDP and the real interest rate as macroeconomic factors. Our model also includes microeconomic determinants; we include inventory levels, measures of uncertainty, and the spot-forward spread. We estimate the equation in a variety of different ways, for eleven individual commodities. Although two macroeconomic fundamentals – global output and inflation – both have positive effects on real commodity prices, the fundamentals that seem to have the most consistent and strongest effects are microeconomic variables: volatility, inventories, and the spot-forward spread. There is also some evidence of a bandwagon effect.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Macroeconomic Policy Mix, Employment and Inflation in a Post-Keynesian Alternative to the New Consensus Model

Abstract: New Consensus Models (NCMs) have been criticised by Post-Keynesians for a variety of reasons, and amendments or alternatives have been presented. The present paper attempts to provide a Post-Keynesian alternative model to the NCM. The model consists of three classes: rentiers, firms and workers. It has a short-run inflation barrier derived from distribution conflict between these classes, which is endogenous in the medium run. Distribution conflict affects not only inflation but also income shares. On the demand side, the income classes have different saving propensities. We apply a Kaleckian investment function with expected sales and internal funds as major determinants. The paper analyses short-run stability and includes medium-run endogeneity channels for the Non-Accelerating-Inflation-Rate-of-Unemployment, or NAIRU: persistence mechanisms in the labour market, adaptive wage and profit aspirations, investment in capital stock and cost effects of interest rate changes. From the model, Post-Keynesian po...

Time Variation in the Inflation Passthrough of Energy Prices

Abstract: From Bayesian estimates of a vector autoregression (VAR) which allows for both coefficient drift and stochastic volatility, we obtain the following three results. First, beginning in approximately 1975, the responsiveness of core inflation to changes in energy prices in the United States fell rapidly and remains muted. Second, this decline in the passthrough of energy inflation to core prices has been sustained through a recent period of markedly higher volatility of shocks to energy inflation. Finally, reduced energy inflation passthrough has persisted in the face of monetary policy which quickly became less responsive to energy inflation starting around 1985.

The Optimal Rate of Inflation

Abstract: Observed inflation targets around the industrial world are concentrated at two percent per year. This paper investigates the extent to which the observed magnitudes of inflation targets are consistent with the optimal rate of inflation predicted by leading theories of monetary non-neutrality. We find that consistently those theories imply that the optimal rate of inflation ranges from minus the real rate of interest to numbers insignificantly above zero. Furthermore, we argue that the zero bound on nominal interest rates does not represent an impediment for setting inflation targets near or below zero. Finally, we find that central banks should adjust their inflation targets upward by the size of the quality bias in measured inflation only if hedonic prices are more sticky than are non-quality-adjusted prices.

A time-series approach to test a change in inflation persistence: the Mexican experience

Abstract: When a central bank commits credibly to a nonaccommodative monetary policy, observed inflation should be a stationary process. In countries where, for a variety of reasons, the determinants of inflation could lead it to follow a nonstationary process, the adoption of a credible disinflationary programme should therefore induce a fundamental change in the stochastic process governing inflation and, in particular, should diminish its persistence. This article studies the time-series properties of both inflation and core inflation during the 1995–2006 period for the Mexican economy, using recently developed techniques to detect a change in the persistence of economic time series. Consistently with the adoption of an inflation-targeting framework, the results suggest that inflation in Mexico seems to have indeed switched from a nonstationary to a stationary process around the end of year 2000 or the beginning of 2001.

Nonlinear mechanisms of the exchange rate pass-through: a Phillips curve model with threshold for Brazil

Abstract: This paper investigates the presence of nonlinear mechanisms of pass-through from the exchange rate to inflation in Brazil. In particular, it estimates a Phillips curve with a threshold for the pass-through. The paper examines whether the short-run magnitude of the pass-through is affected by the business cycle, direction and magnitude of exchange rate changes, and exchange rate volatility. The results indicate that the short-run pass-through is higher when the economy is growing faster, when the exchange rate depreciates above some threshold and when exchange rate volatility is lower.