Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Do corporate bond spreads reflect fear of debt deflation? Most corporate bonds have fixed nominal face values, so unexpectedly low inflation raises firms' real debt burdens and increases default risk. The first chapter develops a real business cycle model with time-varying inflation risk and optimal, but infrequent, capital structure choice. In this model, more volatile or more procyclical inflation lead to quantitatively important credit spread increases. This is true even with inflation volatility as moderate as that in developed economies since 1970. Intuitively, this result obtains because inflation persistence generates large uncertainty about the price level at long maturities and because firms cannot adjust their capital structure immediately. We find strong empirical support for our model predictions in a panel of six developed economies. Both inflation volatility and the inflation-stock return correlation have varied substantially over time and across countries. They jointly explain as much variation in credit spreads as do equity volatility and the dividend-price ratio. Credit spreads rise by 15 basis points if either inflation volatility or the inflation-stock return correlation increases by one standard deviation. Firms counteract higher debt financing costs by adjusting their capital structure in times of higher inflation uncertainty. The second chapter empirically decomposes excess return predictability in inflation-indexed and nominal government bonds into liquidity, market segmentation, real interest rate risk and inflation risk. This chapter finds evidence for time-varying liquidity premia in Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) and for time-varying liquidity premia in TIPS and for time-varying inflation risk premia in nominal bonds. The third chapter develops a pre-test for weak instruments in linear instrumental variable regression that is robust to heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. Our test statistic is a scaled version of the regular first-stage F statistic. The critical values depend on the long-run variance-covariance matrix of the first stage. We apply our pre-test to the instrumental variable estimation of the Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution and find that instruments previously considered not to be weak do not exceed our threshold.

Bakgrund: Olika forskare har under åren identifierat problem relaterade till inflation, samt även bidragit med förslag på lösningar på dessa. Begreppet Money Illusion är ett välkänt begrepp inom området som tycks vara en del i förklaringen till allmänhetens motvilja att hantera inflationsrelaterade problem. Det är bestämt i Sverige av Riksbanken att inflationen skall vara låg men positiv och inflationsmålet är satt till två procent. Indexerade beräkningsenheter presenteras av Robert Shiller som lösning på kunskaps- och beteendeproblem förknippade med inflation. Han definierar en indexerad beräkningsenhet som ska fungera parallellt med den lokala valutan. Syfte: Syftet är att diskutera förutsättningar för en implementering av nya indexerade beräkningsenheter, som fungerar parallellt med valutan, i Sverige samt att kritiskt granska Robert Shillers teorier om indexerade beräkningsenheter. Genomförande: Uppsatsen är av kvalitativ karaktär och bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med personer inom bank- och försäkringsväsendet samt en universitetslektor i nationalekonomi vid Linköpings Universitet. Intervjuerna har utgått från samma intervjumall. Insamlat intervjumaterial har tillsammans med teorier om inflation, indexering och transaktionskostnader legat till grund för analysen. Slutsats: Slutsatsen i uppsatsen är att den låga inflation som råder i Sverige inte ses som ett tillräckligt stort problem för att motivera en mer vida indexering hos privatpersoner. De kostnader som förknippas med indexering, i form av transaktionskostnader, har även underskattats av Robert Shiller vilket gör att hans förespråkande för indexering i låginflationsländer i själva verket högst troligen är en paradox. / Background: Several scientists have, over the years, identified problems related to inflation and contributed with suggestions to solutions. The term Money Illusion is a well-known phenomenon that explains difficulties of separating nominal value from real value. The central bank of Sweden has decided that inflation should be low but positive and the inflation target is set to two percent. Robert Shiller presents Indexed Units of Account as a solution to problems related to inflation depending on knowledge and behavior. He defines an Indexed Unit of Account that is meant to operate in parallel to the local currency. Aim: The aim is to discuss the prerequisites for an implementation of new indexed units of account, which works in tandem with the currency, in Sweden as well as critically examine the theories of indexed units of account made by Robert Shiller. Completion: The thesis is qualitative in nature and is based on semi-structured interviews with people in banking, insurance and a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Linköping. The interviews have assumed the same interview template. Collected interview data, together with theories of inflation, indexing and transaction costs has formed the basis for the analysis. Conclusion: The conclusion in the paper is that the low inflation prevailing in Sweden is not seen as a big enough problem to warrant a more widespread use of indexation by individuals. Robert Shiller has also underestimated the costs associated with indexing, in the form of transaction costs, which most likely means that his advocacy of indexation is a paradox.

In the first chapter, I analyze the US banking industry in order to explain two facts. First, larger banks have lower but less volatile returns on loans compared to smaller banks over the years. Second, larger borrowers have better financial records, i.e. verifiable "hard" information, and they are more likely to match with larger banks, as documented by Berger et al.(2005). I show that these two facts can be explained using a segmented loan markets model with loan contracts between banks and borrowers. Moreover, I show that the difference between the banks returns is not due to diversification advantage of larger banks. Instead, it is because of the fact that larger banks can operate in both large and small loan markets, whereas small banks can only operate in small loans market. Therefore large banks are able to match with larger and less risky borrowers more frequently, which are less likely to default. Moreover, I take the model to infinite horizon allowing bank size to be endogenous to answer multiple policy questions about the future of small business finance and consolidation. I use the data set from the Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income provided by FDIC for 1984-2010 to motivate our research question and to estimate the model. My second chapter revisits the welfare cost of anticipated inflation in an incomplete markets environment where agents can substitute time for money by increasing their shopping frequency. Shopping activity provides an insurance channel to individuals against changes in the return on nominal balances through inflation as documented by Aguiar and Hurst (2007) and McKenzie and Schargrodsky (2011). In my model economy, a higher level of inflation affects people through two channels. First, it distorts the portfolio decision between real and nominal balances, second it redistributes wealth from those who hold more money to those who hold less. People, on average, respond to a higher level of inflation by increasing their price search activity, as they relative return on nominal balances goes down. I find that a 5 percent increase in inflation causes the welfare level go down by 2 percent if people are allowed to substitute time for money, and by 10 percent if we take this channel away from the model. Finally, in the third chapter, I compare the indirect measure of inflation expectations derived by Ireland (1996b) to the direct measures obtained from expectations surveys in multiple countries. Our results show that the inflation bounds calculated for US and UK data are more volatile than survey results, and are too narrow to contain them due to low standard errors in consumption growth series stemming from high persistence. For Chilean and Turkish cases, however, computed bound for inflation expectations seems to fit the survey results better. Out of three different surveys on inflation expectations in Turkey compared with the bounds computed using Turkish data, expectations obtained by the Consumer Tendency Survey fall within these bounds throughout the whole sample period. The success in the Turkish and Chilean cases can be attributed to the fact that volatility in the consumption series, whereas the failure in US and UK cases are most probably stemming from the fact that the current theoretical model is missing a risk-premium component. / text

The current discussion of Inflation Targeting (IT) in emerging economies deals with the effects that nominal exchange rate movements have on the overall inflation rate. The literature has focused in the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages that IT has with respect to other monetary policy regimes and the relevancy of the nominal exchange rate pass-through effect into inflation. So far none of them have dealt with the differences arising from the policy instruments used to fight off inflationary pressure under an IT regime. The literature on IT for emerging economies can be separated in two categories. In the first category the monetary authority uses interest rate policy as the instrument variable to implement and control the inflation target. The second category illustrates when the monetary authorities use international reserves as the instrument to influence the nominal exchange rate in such a way that the depreciation rate is consistent with the overall inflation target. This dissertation presents a model in which both policy instruments are available to the monetary authority. This model is used to address two questions: i) Is IT better than a monetary rule regime? and ii) Is it better to intervene directly in the foreign exchange market rather than use interest rate policy to control exchange rate pressure on inflation, or are they equivalent? The results show that there are important differences between these choices and the answers to these questions are shock dependent. These differences arise because the intervention needed under IT is accompanied by important output costs or benefits depending on the direction of the shock being analyzed. Regarding the pass-through effect, some studies have shown that the pass-through effect from currency depreciation into inflation has been decreasing and therefore is becoming less of an issue for these countries. The literature has offered different explanations for these declines but so far they have not been directly linked to the adoption of IT. This dissertation shows that lower pass-through levels can be a natural result of fear of floating observed in emerging countries that adopted IT and therefore exchange rate effects on inflation are still relevant.

A substantial amount of prior research has focused on the relation between Central Bank Independence (CBI) and inflation control. However, this research is mainly theoretical or conducted using cross-country statistical regressions and correlations in the developed world. Little attention has been given to understanding this relation in emerging nations or the influence of interest groups on CBI and inflation in a specific context. This thesis addresses both gaps by conducting an in-depth observation and analysis of this relation in a single country (Lebanon) and the influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation during a period of high inflation. This empirical evidence in the case of Lebanon shows that Central Bank Independence from the government – even though abundant and complete – was not enough to control inflation. The influence of the banking sector on both CBI and inflation was more important. This work makes a contribution to knowledge through highlighting the importance of national contexts when evaluating the CBI-inflation relation. Furthermore, this research extends our understanding of the literature and its gaps, and presents a new way to conduct in-depth studies in the field. Finally, it provides practical insights that are of importance to central bankers, especially in emerging nations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 221-226). Available also in an electronic version.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Cover title. Photocopy typescript.

A presente tese embasa-se na concepção de que a obtenção e a manutenção da estabilidade de preços na economia brasileira dependem não apenas da adoção de medidas pontuais de curto prazo, como também da contemplação da inflação, ao lado do crescimento econômico, como objetivos correlacionados no contexto de um projeto de desenvolvimento atinente a um horizonte ampliado de tempo. Em termos de políticas conjunturais de controles de preços, evidencia-se que, dado a inflação brasileira não consubstanciar-se em um fenômeno precipuamente de demanda, outras medidas, que não a mera elevação da taxa básica de juros, revelam-se necessárias; ademais, clarifica-se que aumentos nos juros, por seus significativos impactos contracionistas sobre a atividade econômica, comprometem a própria estabilidade futura de preços, consistindo, portanto, em uma conduta anti-inflacionária deveras ineficiente. No que tange ao longo prazo, argumenta-se que a inflação brasileira apresenta especificidades que a tornam variável dependente do processo de desenvolvimento econômico, social e institucional do País. Em assim sendo, entende-se que a dinâmica inflacionária brasileira vincula-se significativamente ao comportamento de determinados atributos intrínsecos ao setor produtivo nacional. Evidências empíricas obtidas neste trabalho a partir da estimação de um modelo SVAR concernente ao período que se segue a dezembro de 2009 mostram a existência de uma relação negativa entre inflação e produtividade na indústria de transformação, revelando-se tal relação, entretanto, inelástica, o que esclarece que o empresariado brasileiro tende a converter a maior parte dos ganhos de produtividade em expansões de mark-up, em vez de repassá-los primordialmente aos preços. Assim, constata-se que os problemas inflacionários enfrentados pela economia brasileira se mostram deveras complexos, e que sua resolução não depende apenas de vontade política. Desse modo, salta aos olhos a ineficiência do simplismo inerente ao Regime de Metas de Inflação no que tange à persecução da estabilidade de preços no Brasil. / The present thesis is based on the idea that obtaining and maintaining price stability in the Brazilian economy depends not only on the adoption of short-term measures, but also on the contemplation of inflation, alongside economic growth, as correlated objectives in the context of a development project related to an extended horizon of time. In terms of the cyclical policies of price control, it is evident that, given that Brazilian inflation is not mainly consubstantiated in a demand phenomenon, alternative measures, other than the mere increase of the benchmark interest rate, are necessary; in addition, it is clarified that increases in interest rates, due to their significant contractionary impacts on economic activity, jeopardize the future price stability, thus constituting an inefficient anti-inflationary behavior. With regard to the long-term, it is argued that Brazilian inflation shows specificities that make it a variable dependent of the economic, social and institutional development process of the Country. Accordingly, it is understood that the Brazilian inflationary dynamics is significantly linked to behavior of certain attributes intrinsic to the national productive sector. Empirical evidence obtained in this work from the estimation of a SVAR model concerning to the period after December 2009 shows the existence of a negative relationship between inflation and productivity in the manufacturing industry, revealing this relationship, however, inelastic, what clarifies that Brazilian businessmen tend to convert most of their productivity gains into mark-up expansions, instead of passing them along primarily to prices. So, it can be seen that the inflationary problems faced by the Brazilian economy are very complex, and that their resolution depends not only on political will. Therefore, the inefficiency of the simplicity inherent to the Inflation Targeting Regime in relation to the pursuit of price stability in Brazil is quite clear.

This thesis consists of three studies that cover topics in inflation and output growth, and their uncertainties in G7 and developing countries. We utilise the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Industrial Price Index (IPI) as proxies for the inflation rate (price level) and the growth rate (output), respectively. Chapter 2 considers the case of three developing countries Turkey, Egypt and Syria. We analyse the inflation and growth using asymmetric PGARCH model. In accordance with this, we estimate all the models using two alternative distributions the normal and Student’s t. Moreover, dummy variables are chosen in the inflation data according to some economic events in Turkey, Egypt and Syria. Even more, the mean equation is adjusted to include these dummy variables on the intercept. To summarize, the results show an evidence of the Cukierman–Meltzer (1986) hypothesis, which is labelled as the ‘opportunistic Fed’ by Grier and Perry (1998), in Egypt and Syria. On the other hand, an evidence of the Holland (1995) hypothesis is obtained in Turkey, this result suggests that the ‘stabilizing Fed’ notion is plausible. Moreover, an evidence for the first leg of Friedman (1977) hypothesis is obtained in Egypt and Turkey. Chapter 3 examines the causal relationship between inflation and output growth, and their variabilities for G7 countries by applying the bivariate constant conditional correlation CCC – GARCH (1,1)-ML models. Moreover, we employ the models including dummy variables in the mean equations to investigate the impact of economic events on inflation and output. Briefly, there are evidences of the second leg of Friedman (1977) hypothesis in the US, UK, Germany, Italy, France and Canada while there is an evidence of Dotsey and Sarte (2000) in Japan. In addition, there are evidences for positive effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation in the US, Germany, Japan and France in line of Cukierman and Meltzer (1986) hypothesis. Moreover, the results of estimation CCC-GARCH (1,1) in mean models including dummy variables highlight a strong support for the two legs of Friedman (1977) hypothesis and Cukierman and Meltzer (1986). Lastly, Chapter 4 is based on examining the inflation rates for three developing countries Turkey, Syria and Egypt by applying the Bai and Perron (2003) breakpoint specification technique in the monthly inflation data of our sample. As a result, three possible break points for each of the inflation rates in the conditional variance have been determined. In addition, we employ GARCH model to control the breaks in the conditional mean and variance equations. To conclude, the autoregressive coefficients seem to cause a statistically significant impact on the breaks only in the case of Turkey, also, the parameters of the mean equation show time varying characteristics across three breaks. As far as the conditional variance is concerned the ARCH parameter (?) shows no time varying behaviour while for the GARCH parameter only one significant break seems to impact the inflation rate in Syria.