Texte remanié de: Ph. D.--Classical Philology--Harvard, 1993. / Bibliogr. p. 341-347. Index.

Dissertation--Hambourg--Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, 2006.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Hochschule für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, St. Gall. / Bibliography: p. xvii-xxviii.

Mannheim, Universität, 2003.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 129 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Eric O'N. Fisher, Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-129).

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they incentivize student performance and academic behavior, and signal quality of student academic achievement to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the value of grades and undermines their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. I challenge the ‘increases in grade point average’ definition of grade inflation employed by critics and argue that grade inflation must be understood in terms of the signaling power of grades. Analyzing data from four nationally representative samples of high school students, I find that in the decades following 1972: (a) grades have risen at high schools and dropped at four-year colleges, in general, and selective four-year institutions, in particular; and (b) the signaling power of grades has attenuated little, if at all. I conclude that the concerns of critics who warn of rampant grade inflation are misplaced. Grades at secondary and postsecondary institutions are just as meaningful now as they were four decades ago. / text

I will investigate the primordial squeezed limit bispectrum as produced by inflation in single-field models. Previous results have argued that generically, single-field inflation produces a negligible bispectrum. However, more careful evaluation yields a more ambiguous result. I will discuss an alternate method for calculating the squeezed limit bispectrum for a general single-field inflation model. I will also explore slow-roll inflation with a non-standard initial state, where we find an enhanced squeezed-limit. I will discuss the detectability of such models in various cosmological observables such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Large Scale Structure, and mu-distortion of the CMB. / text

Den här uppsatsen är en ekonometrisk studie som syftar till att empiriskt skatta sambandet mellan inflationen och den marginella konsumtionsbenägenheten i Sverige genom Error Correction Modeller (ECM). Två modeller, skattads på årsdata med hjälp av Error Correction Modellering (ECM) med förklarande variabler som inflation, realränta, disponibel inkomst, arbetslöshet och finansiella tillgångar. Fokus ligger på sambandet mellan inflationen och den marginella konsumtionsbenägenheten (MPC). Genom ECM-modellerna får vi fram kortsiktiga och långsiktiga dynamiska förändringar i konsumtionsbenägenheten. Utgångspunkten för uppsatsen är den Keynesianska konsumtionsteorin och den neoklassiska konsumtionsteorin. Resultaten visar att det finns ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan inflation och den marginella konsumtionsbenägenheten. På kort sikt har inflation ett positivt samband med den marginella konsumtionsbenägenheten som innebär att viljan att konsumera i nutid ökar för att man inte vill förlora köpkraft på grund av inflationsökningen. På lång sikt är sambandet negativt eftersom konsumenter är nyttomaximerare som fördelar sin konsumtion över tiden för att kunna hålla en jämn konsumtion över tiden.Vi finner kortsiktigt att en procentenhets ökning i inflation orsakar 80 procents ökning i MPC; allt annat lika för perioden 1995-2014. På lång sikt, över två perioder, orsakar en procentenhets ökning i inflation 24 procents ökning initialt och därefter 27 procents minskning i MPC för perioden 1970-2014 / This essay is an econometric study that aims to empirically estimate the relationship between inflation and marginal propensity to consume in Sweden by Error Correction Model (ECM). Two models are developed using the Error Correction Model (ECM) with explanatory variables such as inflation, real interest rates, disposable income, unemployment, and financial assets. We the focus on the relationship between inflation and marginal propensity to consume (MPC). We estimate short and long term dynamic changes in consumption the parameters by ECM models. The theoretical framework of this paper is the Keynesian consumption theory and the Neo-classical consumption theory. We draw conclusions about the relationship between those factors. The results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between inflation and marginal propensity to consume. In the short term, inflation has a positive correlation on the marginal propensity to consume, which means that willingness to consume in the present increases, in order to not lose purchasing power in the inflation increase. In the long term the relationship is negative for the reason that consumers are maximizing utility and distribute their consumption over time in order to consume at the same level for several periods. We find short-term inflation causes 80 percent increase in the MPC; all else being equal. In the long run, over the two periods, inflation causes 24 percent increase initially and then 27 percent decline in the MPC.

The focus of the following three essays rests on the Kydland-Prescott (1977) and Barro-Gordon (1983) model of time inconsistent discretionary monetary policy. The first essay derives a model in which the costs and benefits to inflation are tied to the underlying features of the economy. The benefit to inflation arises due to monopolistic competition among firms and the cost is due to a staggered timing structure for nominal money. The benefit of this approach is that it can be shown that factors that increase the monetary authority's incentive to inflate may also increase the costs to inflation, and therefore do not necessarily result in a worsened inflation bias. In particular, the model shows that discretionary inflation in the economy is nonmonotonically related to the distortion. The model also indicates that changes in the real interest rate affect the monetary authority's incentives and hence the discretionary rate of inflation. An increase in the labor share raises the discretionary rate. Lastly, lack of commitment, costs to inflation, and the presence of a distortion are crucial for discretionary inflation to be biased above the Friedman (1969) rule. The second essay builds on the first, extending the model to an open economy environment. The extended model indicates several channels through which openness affects the monetary authority's incentives. Most significantly, the model cannot replicate the Romer (1993) and Lane (1995) result that openness reduces the discretionary rate of inflation. Again, the model relates the underlying features of the economy on the discretionary rate, and an economy's foreign asset position. Strategic incentives are also important for determining whether an open economy's rate of inflation is less than that of a comparable closed economy. The last essay analyzes empirically the relationship between the overall degree of competition among firms, as measured by the markup, and the average rate of inflation for the OECD group of countries. In line with the time-consistency argument, results indicate a positive relationship between markups and inflation. This finding is robust to the inclusion of several explanatory variables, such as terms of trade effects, and central bank independence. The evidence is weak, however, in the presence of per capita GDP.

The thesis offers a new framework for inflation as a process of restructuring. Contrary to existing theories of inflation, which tend to take structure and institutions as given for the purpose of analysis, we argue that inflation could be understood only in terms of ongoing structural and institutional change. In the modern context of large-scale business enterprise, inflationary restructuring arises as an integral part of capital accumulation. On the aggregate level, inflation appeals as stagflation, with the expansion of pecuniary values in the 'business' sphere depending on the strategic limitation of productive activity in the 'industrial' realm. This stagflationary interaction between 'business' and 'industry' is, in turn, linked (on the disaggregate level) to the dynamic formation and reformation of 'distributional coalitions' and the process of aggregate concentration. An empirical analysis of the U.S. experience between the early 1950s and the late 1980s reveals two regimes of inflationary restructuring: the first, which lasted until 1970, involved rapid increases in aggregate concentration with relatively modest stagflation, whereas the second, post-1970 regime consisted of stable (or even declining) concentration amidst severe stagflation.