Background: In the wake of recent spikes of inflationary uncertainty, the phenomenon of“greedflation” has emerged. The phenomenon regards the idea of firms exploiting times of inflationary uncertainty to their benefit at the cost of consumer welfare. Building upon scarce previous literature on the subject, this thesis expands upon established models and contributes to new insights into the topic. Purpose: The primary objective was to investigate whether there were indications of Swedish firms exploiting times of increasing inflation uncertainty to enhance their profitability. The thesis wished to find if there is a relationship between inflation uncertainty and both net profit margins and gross margins. By examining the phenomenon of “greedflation” the goal was to extend the empirical findings and contribute with new methodologies to establish new avenues of exploring the subject. Method: The thesis employed a positivistic, deductive research approach together with a quantitative strategy. The data was collected from databases such as “Thompson Refinitiv Eikon”, “Statistics Sweden” and the “Swedish Central Bank”. The statistical approach was to develop panel data regressions, together with a framework to measure “greedflation”, which allowed for statistical analysis of the data cross-sectionally, over time. Conclusion: Findings reveal that the phenomenon of “greedflation” cannot be entirely proved during the entire sample period. However, dwelling into sectoral and subperiod effects, some signs of exploitative behaviour, or “greedflation” can be seen during 2022 and 2023. Additionally, during periods of high inflationary uncertainty, profit margins tended to rise across sectors, hinting at the presence of "greedflation", although inflation was probably influenced by other effects instead of corporate pricing behaviour.

The switch from a fixed exchange rate regime to a flexible exchange rate regime seldom goes smoothly. A major reason why devaluations are so disruptive is that countries are reluctant to abandon their fixed exchange rate regimes. This “reluctance to devalue” phenomenon is one of the puzzles in international finance. This dissertation makes towards understanding this “reluctance to devalue”. First, I investigate the factors that may influence the probability of a switch from a fixed to a flexible exchange rate regime using survival models. I find that pegs have non-monotonic duration dependence. Moreover, I find that GDP growth strongly influences the probability of abandoning a peg. Second, I propose that the “reluctance to devalue” could stem from uncertainty about the control over inflation after devaluation which raises the threshold of economic pain that could convince policy makers to devalue. I develop this argument in a rules-vs-discretion theoretical framework. Empirical analysis based on survey data from Bulgaria supports this hypothesis. Given that abandoning a fixed exchange rate regime is one of the three options that are available to countries on a peg, I investigate whether a periphery country's decision to abandon its peg is impacted by a potential move to a currency union. I find that the perception of “insurance” justified by expected-bailouts in a currency union increase the support for joining a currency union. The strength of this “safety net” perception is strong despite expected negative impact of the currency union on the country’s macroeconomic indicators.

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.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-02-12T11:17:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ronaldotrogodealmeida.pdf: 1648591 bytes, checksum: 8908c04560a36cd8ba7b3e2a5858d5a0 (MD5) / Rejected by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br), reason: Renata, não entendi porque o título está entre aspas “O efeito da transparência sobre a incerteza inflacionária no Brasil dentro do regime de metas” on 2016-02-26T12:10:54Z (GMT) / Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-02-26T12:14:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ronaldotrogodealmeida.pdf: 1648591 bytes, checksum: 8908c04560a36cd8ba7b3e2a5858d5a0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-03-03T13:39:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 ronaldotrogodealmeida.pdf: 1648591 bytes, checksum: 8908c04560a36cd8ba7b3e2a5858d5a0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-03T13:39:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ronaldotrogodealmeida.pdf: 1648591 bytes, checksum: 8908c04560a36cd8ba7b3e2a5858d5a0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-15 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho teve por objetivo analisar a relação entre incerteza inflacionária e transparência do banco central dentro do período de metas de inflação, de julho de 2003 a maio de 2010. Para tanto, foram realizados dois desenvolvimentos teóricos, em que no primeiro se fez uso do desenvolvimento de Demertzis e Hallet (2007) com o arcabouço teórico da curva de oferta de Lucas como restrição, enquanto o segundo utilizou o arcabouço teórico da curva de Phillips novo-keynesiana que, além de contar com a função perda do banco central, incorpora a função perda dos agentes, passando estes a serem afetados diretamente pelas decisões da autoridade monetária. Cabe ressaltar que nos desenvolvimentos realizados houve uma modificação crucial em relação à literatura no que tange a importância da transparência no ambiente econômico, usualmente avaliada sobre a trajetória das variáveis econômicas e suas variâncias, conforme resultados de Demertzis e Hallet (2007). Contudo, nesta dissertação, a importância da transparência incide essencialmente sobre a incerteza dos agentes econômicos em relação à inflação futura através dos erros de previsão destes, baseado fundamentalmente nos pressupostos de Lahiri e Sheng (2010), em que os agentes econômicos no caso brasileiro são representados pelos participantes da pesquisa Focus. Dado o arcabouço utilizado no primeiro modelo, as relações teóricas encontradas não apontaram importância da transparência sobre a incerteza inflacionária dos indivíduos, sendo esta medida afetada essencialmente pelos choques de oferta da economia. No entanto, no que concerne ao exercício empírico, os resultados sugerem que uma parcela substancial da variabilidade observada na incerteza individual não é explicada pela variação observada nos choques de oferta, havendo, portanto, a possibilidade de que outros fatores possam ser incorporados, uma vez que o modelo teórico sugere que, caso os agentes não enfrentem problemas de comunicação com a autoridade monetária, os choques de oferta deveriam ser a origem da incerteza individual. Desta forma, existe espaço para explorarmos o problema considerando um novo arcabouço teórico representado pela curva de Phillips novo-keynesiana, que permitiu a inserção da discussão da transparência sobre a incerteza inflacionária dos agentes. Os resultados empíricos comprovaram as relações teóricas apresentadas, ou seja, a variável referente à transparência política do banco central foi assaz importante na explicação da incerteza inflacionária dos agentes durante o período de interesse. / This study aimed to analyze the relation between inflation uncertainty and transparency of the central bank within the period of inflation targeting, from July 2003 to May 2010. Therefore, there were two theoretical developments, in which the first was made use of development Demertzis and Hallet (2007) with the theoretical framework of the Lucas supply curve as restriction, while the second used the theoretical framework of the new-Keynesian Phillips curve, in addition to the central bank’s loss function, incorporates loss function of the agents, passing these to be directly affected by the decisions of the monetary authority. Note that the developments made there was a crucial change from the literature regarding the importance of transparency in the economic environment, usually evaluated on the trajectory of economic variables and their variances, according to results of Demertzis and Hallet (2007). However, in this work, the importance of transparency essentially concerns the uncertainty of economic agents regarding future inflation through the forecast errors of these fundamentally based on the assumptions of Lahiri and Sheng (2010), in which economic agents in the Brazilian case are represented by the research participants Focus. Given the framework used in the first model, the theoretical relationships found not pointed importance of transparency on inflation uncertainty of individuals, and this measure is affected primarily by supply shocks in the economy. However, regarding the empirical exercise, the results suggest that a substantial portion of the variability in the individual uncertainty is not explained by variation in the supply shocks observed, and therefore there is the possibility that other factors can be incorporated once the theoretical model suggests that if the agents do not face communication problems with the monetary authority, the supply shocks should be the origin of individual uncertainty. Thus, there is room to explore the problem considering a new theoretical framework represented by the new-Keynesian Phillips curve, which allowed the insertion of the discussion of transparency on inflation uncertainty of the agents. The empirical results confirm the theory with the relations, that is, the variable on the central bank policy transparency was quite important in explaining inflation uncertainty of the agents during the period of interest.

This thesis is a collection of three essays on inflation expectations, forecasting uncertainty, and the role of uncertainty in sequential auctions, all using experimental approach. Chapter 1 studies how individuals forecast inflation in fictitious macroeconomic setup and analyzes the effect of monetary policy rules on their decisions. Results display heterogeneity in inflation forecasting rules and demonstrate the importance of adaptive learning forecasting if model switching is assumed. Chapter 2 extends the analysis from Chapter 1 by analyzing individual inflation forecasting uncertainty. Results show that confidence intervals depend on inflation variance and business cycle phase, have a strong inertia, and are often asymmetric. Finally, Chapter 3 analyzes the role of uncertainty about the number of bidders for the behavior of subjects in a sequential auction experiment. Uncertainty does not aggravate price decline, but it changes individual bidding strategies and auction efficiency. / Esta tesis consta de tres ensayos sobre las expectativas de inflación, la incertidumbre de la predicción, y la importancia de la incertidumbre en subastas secuenciales. Todos ellos utilizan un método experimental. El capítulo 1 estudia cómo los individuos predicen la inflación en la economía ficticia y analiza el efecto de las reglas de política monetaria en sus decisiones. Los resultados revelan la heterogeneidad en las reglas de predicción de la inflación y demuestran la importancia del mecanismo de aprendizaje adaptivo si el cambio entre los modelos se supone. Capítulo 2 continúa el análisis del capítulo 1, analiza la incertidumbre individual de las expectativas de inflación. Los resultados muestran que los intervalos de confianza dependen de varianza de la inflación y la fase del ciclo económico, tienen una fuerte inercia, y son frecuentemente asimétricos. Por último, el capítulo 3 analiza la influencia de la incertidumbre sobre el número de oferentes en el comportamiento de los individuos en un experimento de la subasta secuencial. La incertidumbre no agrava la caída de los precios, pero cambia las estrategias de los oferentes y la eficiencia de la subasta.