[pt] Este trabalho testa e encontra evidência de que as taxas de juros de empréstimos bancários respondem mais a aumentos do que a quedas na taxa básica de juros (Selic). A assimetria sobrevive a uma análise de evento, na qual a disponibilidade de uma base com dados diários é explorada com o objetivo de isolar o choque de política monetária sobre os juros. Dentre as potencias teorias que racionalizam essa assimetria, duas são consideradas. A primeira refere-se à existência de poder de mercado, o que permite aos bancos coordenarem um menor repasse como forma de aumentar os lucros de curto prazo. A segunda argumenta que a presença de forte seleção adversa no mercado de crédito diminui o incentivo à concorrência na dimensão preço, reduzindo o repasse de quedas no custo de captação. Como as duas hipóteses produzem implicações empíricas similares em forma reduzida, o artigo propõe e estima um modelo estrutural a fim de testar qual dos dois modelos melhor se ajusta aos preços e quantidades observados no mercado de crédito para pessoa física. / [en] This paper tests and find evidence that support the view that credit interest rates respond more to increases than to decreases in the Central Bank basic interest rate (Selic). This asymmetry is robust to an event analysis, in which the availability of a dataset containing daily information is explored in order to isolate monetary policy shocks on interest rates. Among the possible explanations for this asymmetry, two are considered in the article. The first one refers to the existence of market power, which allows banks to coordinate on a smaller pass-through in order to increase profits in the short run. The second refers to the potential existence of severe adverse selection issues in the credit market, which diminishes the incentives to compete on the interest rate dimension and consequently the pass-through from decreases in the cost of funds. Since the two theories present similar empirical implications in reduced forma analysis, the article proposes and estimates a structural model in order to test which of the competing theories better fits the observed data on prices and quantities for household credit in Brazil.

Esse trabalho propõe testar a presença de hysteresis na demanda por importações e no repasse cambial para o preço das importações, no período de 1996 a 2008 no Brasil, utlizando dados em painel para 29 setores industriais. Os testes para a presença de hysteresis baseiam-se no conceito de hysteresis forte fornecido pelo modelo de Preisach (1938), captadas a partir de variáveis representativas do fenômeno calculadas a partir do algoritmo de Piscitelli et al (2000). As estimações utilizam a metodologia convencional em painel, bem como métodos de estimação considerando a possibilidade de cointegração entre as variáveis. Os resultados evidenciaram a presença de hysteresis no preço e no quantum importados. Como teorizou Dixit (1989), o grau de pass-through reduz na presença do fenômeno histerético. Além disso, obtivemos que o grau de repasse cambial para o preço das importações diminuía sob a presença de hysteresis, conforme proposto por Dixit. / This research proposes to test the hysteresis hypothesis on the Brazilian import demand and the exchange rate pass-through from 1996 to 2008 in a panel from 29 industrial sectors. The hysteresis test is based on the strong hysteresis concept from Preisach model, measured by algorithm from Piscitelli et al (2000). The methodology focus on the traditional panels method and the cointegration relationship. The results indicate the presence of hysteresis at both equations. Besides, the exchange rate pass-through estimated reduced in the presence of hysteresis as proposed by Dixit (1989).

This work is focused on econometric analysis of inflation in the Czech Republic, there is also reported an analysis of inflation in Austria and continuity of both countries to the dominant German economy. The inflation with its forms and possibilities of measuring is described in the first part of this work. There is also mentioned the influence of Czech national bank on the inflation. Next, there is shown the impact of foreign exchange rates and inflation. Consequently there are described characteristics of time series, which are important from viewpoint of construction of econometric models. Next, there is described theory of econometrics analysis, focused on ordinary least squares method and method of instrumental variables. The empirical part contains econometric analysis of inflation itself, using models described in theoretical part. Moreover, this work includes other models, coming out of economic hypothesis. Firstly, it analyses inflation in Germany as the reference country. Secondly, further analysis performs inflation in the Czech Republic and Austria. Finally, an analysis based on ERPT (exchange rate pass-through) models is given. In conclusion, the results are well summarized and compared.

Thesis advisor: Georg Strasser / Exchange Rate Pass Through (ERPT) is the percentage change in a destination country’s import price given a percentage change in the exchange rate. A complete ERPT occurs when import price decreases by the same percentage as the depreciation of the exporting country’s currency and vice versa. In this paper I analyze ERPT in large and small open economies, and hypothesize that as destination economy size gets larger, ERPT will decrease. Reasons I provide to support this hypothesis are: the import share of exporters in destination economies, the demand elasticity that foreign exporters face, and the proportion of consumer demand to world demand that the foreign exporter faces. I find, with statistical significance, that ERPT decreases as the destination economy size increases. The main reason attributed to this inverse relationship is the import share of foreign exporters in destination economies. As import share of the foreign exporter increases, ERPT increases within those destination economies. Since foreign exporters have a higher chance of establishing a large import share in small economies than in large economies, they have a better chance of passing through exchange rate changes into destination country prices. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: Economics.

Uma série de relações de simultaneidade definem a estrutura de determinação dos preços no agregado para uma economia aberta. Além destas inter-relações a natureza das variáveis, seguindo trajetória não estacionárias quando individualmente analisadas mas de equilíbrio no sentido de que se movimentam conjuntamente no longo prazo, faz com que a estrutura para a análise empírica da relação entre a taxa de câmbio e os preços consista em um sistema complexo sobre o qual tem relevância tanto a dinâmica de curto quanto a dinâmica de longo prazo entre das variáveis. O objetivo deste trabalho é manter-se coerente a este contexto para obter estimativas do repasse cambial de longo prazo para os preços da economia brasileira. Isto é possível utilizando o arcabouço metodológico dos modelos Vetores de Correção de Erros (VCE), sendo assim, a principal contribuição deste trabalho consiste na aplicação da metodologia dos modelos Estruturais de Vetores de Correção de Erros (SVCE), introduzidos em King et. al. (1991). Além disso o trabalho discute a identificação do repasse cambial a partir das funções de resposta ao impulso para variáveis não estacionárias, obtidas para os modelos VCE e SVCE, por meio das quais é possível identificar o longo prazo e contrastar os diferentes resultados para o repasse cambial obtidos de acordo com este arcabouço metodológico. / There is a series of simultaneous relations that define the structure of pricing determination in aggregate for an open economy. Besides these interrelations, the nature of the variables, following non-stationary trajectory when analyzed individually but in equilibrium in the sense that, in the long run they move together, causes the structure to the empirical analysis of the relationship between the exchange rate and prices consists in a complex system over which has relevance both the short-run and long-term dynamics between the variables. The objective of this work is to remain consistent in this context to obtaining estimates of long-term exchange pass-through to the aggregate prices of Brazilian economy. This is possible using the methodological framework of the Vector Error Correction models (VEC), inside which, the main contribution of this work consists in applying the methodology of Structural Vector Error Correction models (SVEC), introduced in King et. al. (1991). Furthermore, the paper discusses the identification of exchange rate pass-through using the impulse response functions for non-stationary variables, obtained for the VEC and SVEC models, through which it is possible to identify the long-term exchange rate pass-through and compare the different results obtained according to this methodological framework.

Expectations regarding the relationship between exchange rates and the prices of traded goOds in small open economies have traditionally been derived from the idea of the relative unimportance of a single small country when trading in much larger international markets. This concept has led to the use of distinct 'small-country' or 'dependent-economy' models to analyse the effects of macroeconomic changes. Thus for small economies like Australia, it is usually assumed that the foreign-currency prices of traded goods are fixed in perfectly competitive international markets. Accordingly, exchange rate movements must be completely absorbed in domestic-currency prices. In other words, the pass-through of exchange rate changes to destination-currency prices must be zero for Australian exports, and complete for Australian imports. Such expectations regarding the degree of exchange rate pass-through contrast sharply with those found in conventional macroeconomic models for large countries, in which pass-through is assumed to be complete for all traded goods. Moreover, they conflict with the results derived from the large theoretical and empirical literature on the microeconomic determinants of pass-through, which suggests that much international trade takes place in imperfectly competitive markets, in which the degree of less-than-complete pass-through depends on industry-specific factors. This study explores these apparent conflicts by re-examining the small-country assumption, with particular emphasis on export prices as the area of greatest divergence. Specifically, it addresses three research questions: 1) What are the theoretical conditions that underlie the small-country assumption? 2)What are the implications for the macroeconomic models of small economies if this assumption is violated? 3) In practice, is the data more consistent with the validity or otherwise of the assumption? The analysis focuses on Australia as a practical example of a small open economy with a high proportion of commodity exports. In summary, the theoretical and empirical results reported in this study suggest that the small-country assumption is unlikely to hold in practice. That is, exchange rate pass-through is more likely to be determined by industry-specific factors, rather than by the universal conclusion of zero pass-through for all Australian exports that is derived from the small-country assumption. Further, they imply that the movement in internal prices required to restore equilibrium in a small country following an external shock is likely to be both larger and more uncertain than has previously been expected. Under such circumstances, the full flexibility of the exchange rate, as the primary and most rapid source of the required adjustments, becomes particularly significant. An important policy implication for small open economies that are subject to frequent terms of trade shocks, such as Australia, is that attempts to manage the exchange rate in order to reduce apparently excessive movements may in fact result in a longer and more protracted process of adjustment through the labour market.

The dissertation consists of three essays on Dutch Disease and exchange rate pass-through. Dutch Disease refers to the adverse effects of the natural resource booms on the tradable sectors (manufacturing industries) which may occur mainly through the subsequent appreciation of the real exchange rate.<p> The first essay aims to investigate whether Canadian manufacturing industries have experienced Dutch Disease over the period 1992-2007 as a result of the oil boom. After a review of the literature and discussion of the theoretical considerations, the paper presents a two part empirical analysis to estimate the short- and long-run Dutch Disease effects for the Canadian manufacturing industries at three, four and few cases of five-digit levels of NAICS (about 80 industries), using quarterly data. The first part of the empirical analysis estimates the relationship between real exchange rate and energy prices as well as the other related factors and the second part estimates the effect of real exchange rate on output of the manufacturing industries. Based on these two estimated relationships, the Dutch Disease effect is derived by calculating the effect of energy prices on output of the manufacturing industries. The results indicate that the direction and magnitude of the Dutch Disease effect varies substantially across industries likely, as theory explains, because of differences in market structure in terms of the market power. Specifically, 53 out of the 80 industries suffer from the Dutch Disease with the elasticity of -0.18 in average, while Dutch Disease is beneficial for 24 industries with the elasticity of 0.21 in average. The simulation results reveal that, among the industries suffering (benefiting) from the Dutch Disease, each industry could have more annual output growth by 0.93 (-1.07) percent in average if energy prices remained at its level in 1992. This simulated value for the whole sample is 0.30 percent which is significant compared to 2.8 percent as the average of annual industrial production growth during 1992-2007.<p> The second and third essays together aim to model and estimate the degree of exchange rate pass-through into Canadian producer prices in manufacturing industries. The second essay, as a theoretical one, presents a literature review and contributes to the literature by developing a relatively more general theoretical framework. The provided model, which extends Yangs model (1997) by incorporating the role of the tradable inputs, is able to show all the major determinants of exchange rate pass-through together, while the previous studies have only analyzed the role of one or some of these factors. Specifically, the theoretical model indicates that the exchange rate pass-through should be between one and zero, while it is positively affected by the share of tradable inputs in total cost, and the domestic firms' market share and negatively by the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output. The sign for the degree of substitutability among the variants is not theoretically clear and remains as an empirical question.<p> Finally, the third essay presents the empirical framework for estimation of the exchange rate pass-through and its determinants in Canadian manufacturing industries. In this essay, the short- and long-run exchange rate pass-through elasticities to the domestic producer prices are estimated for the industries at three, four and few cases of five-digit levels of NAICS (about 100 industries), using quarterly data from 1992-2007. Then, the pass-through variation across industries is explained by regressing the estimated pass-through elasticities on the variables that are hypothesized to affect the pass-through elasticities according to the developed theoretical model. The results indicate that incomplete pass-through is observed in most cases although its magnitude is different across industries. The average short- and long-run pass-through elasticities are 0.24 and 0.36 respectively. The share of intermediate materials, as the tradable inputs, in production costs (with positive effect) and the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output (with negative effect) are the most important determinants of the exchange rate pass-through across industries.

The dissertation consists of three essays on Dutch Disease and exchange rate pass-through. Dutch Disease refers to the adverse effects of the natural resource booms on the tradable sectors (manufacturing industries) which may occur mainly through the subsequent appreciation of the real exchange rate.<p> The first essay aims to investigate whether Canadian manufacturing industries have experienced Dutch Disease over the period 1992-2007 as a result of the oil boom. After a review of the literature and discussion of the theoretical considerations, the paper presents a two part empirical analysis to estimate the short- and long-run Dutch Disease effects for the Canadian manufacturing industries at three, four and few cases of five-digit levels of NAICS (about 80 industries), using quarterly data. The first part of the empirical analysis estimates the relationship between real exchange rate and energy prices as well as the other related factors and the second part estimates the effect of real exchange rate on output of the manufacturing industries. Based on these two estimated relationships, the Dutch Disease effect is derived by calculating the effect of energy prices on output of the manufacturing industries. The results indicate that the direction and magnitude of the Dutch Disease effect varies substantially across industries likely, as theory explains, because of differences in market structure in terms of the market power. Specifically, 53 out of the 80 industries suffer from the Dutch Disease with the elasticity of -0.18 in average, while Dutch Disease is beneficial for 24 industries with the elasticity of 0.21 in average. The simulation results reveal that, among the industries suffering (benefiting) from the Dutch Disease, each industry could have more annual output growth by 0.93 (-1.07) percent in average if energy prices remained at its level in 1992. This simulated value for the whole sample is 0.30 percent which is significant compared to 2.8 percent as the average of annual industrial production growth during 1992-2007.<p> The second and third essays together aim to model and estimate the degree of exchange rate pass-through into Canadian producer prices in manufacturing industries. The second essay, as a theoretical one, presents a literature review and contributes to the literature by developing a relatively more general theoretical framework. The provided model, which extends Yangs model (1997) by incorporating the role of the tradable inputs, is able to show all the major determinants of exchange rate pass-through together, while the previous studies have only analyzed the role of one or some of these factors. Specifically, the theoretical model indicates that the exchange rate pass-through should be between one and zero, while it is positively affected by the share of tradable inputs in total cost, and the domestic firms' market share and negatively by the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output. The sign for the degree of substitutability among the variants is not theoretically clear and remains as an empirical question.<p> Finally, the third essay presents the empirical framework for estimation of the exchange rate pass-through and its determinants in Canadian manufacturing industries. In this essay, the short- and long-run exchange rate pass-through elasticities to the domestic producer prices are estimated for the industries at three, four and few cases of five-digit levels of NAICS (about 100 industries), using quarterly data from 1992-2007. Then, the pass-through variation across industries is explained by regressing the estimated pass-through elasticities on the variables that are hypothesized to affect the pass-through elasticities according to the developed theoretical model. The results indicate that incomplete pass-through is observed in most cases although its magnitude is different across industries. The average short- and long-run pass-through elasticities are 0.24 and 0.36 respectively. The share of intermediate materials, as the tradable inputs, in production costs (with positive effect) and the elasticity of marginal cost with respect to output (with negative effect) are the most important determinants of the exchange rate pass-through across industries.

<p>This dissertation consists of three chapters relating to dynamic demand models of storable goods and their application to taxes that are imposed on soft drinks. Broadly speaking, the first chapter builds the estimation strategy for dynamic demand models of storable goods that allows for unobservable heterogeneous preferences in household's tastes. The second chapter uses the estimation strategy developed in the first chapter to study the policy implications of taxes that are imposed on sugary soft drinks. The last chapter explores and provides an explanation for the level of pass-through for soda taxes. </p><p>To be more specific, the first chapter develops techniques for incorporating systematic brand preferences in dynamic demand models of storable goods. Dynamic demand models are important for correctly measuring price elasticities of products that can be stockpiled. However, most of the literature excludes systematic preferences over consumers' brand tastes. This chapter resolves this issue by incorporating random coefficient Logit models into a dynamic demand framework and hence allows for realistic demand substitution patterns. It builds on Hendel and Nevo's 2006 Econometrica paper, where the authors introduce a model of dynamic demand that flexibly incorporates observable heterogeneity and estimates it via a three-step procedure that separates brand and volume choices. While a powerful tool, this method is tricky to execute. Therefore, this chapter also discusses the difficulties that may face implementers.</p><p>The second chapter predicts the effects of taxes on sugar sweetened soft drinks (sugar taxes) on both total consumption and the welfare of different types of consumers. It specifies and estimates a structural dynamic demand model of storable goods with rational and forward-looking households. It flexibly incorporates persistent heterogeneous consumer preferences and develops a computationally attractive method for estimating its parameters. Sugar taxes have been proposed at both the national and state-level, and passed in three states, as a means of slowing or reversing the growth in obesity and diabetes. To accurately analyze the effects of these policies, this chapter takes two specific aspects of soft drinks into account: storability and differentiation. It compares the results from this model to two benchmark studies: a static model with consumer heterogeneity and a dynamic model without households' persistent heterogeneous tastes. It finds that failing to account for dynamics (i.e. storability) results in overestimated reduction in consumption and failing to account for persistent heterogeneous preferences (i.e. differentiation) results in overestimated reduction in consumption and underestimated welfare loss. The model and method developed here are readily applicable to many studies involving storable goods, such as firms' optimal pricing behavior and anti-trust policies analyses.</p><p>The third and last chapter focuses on the incidence of soda taxes by studying the pass-through level of these taxes. It lays out a framework for thinking about the determinants of the pass-through level. More specifically, it builds theoretical models that examine the pass-through under more complex supply structures with multiple manufactures and retailers. In addition to providing some intuition behind theoretical predictions of the models, this chapter also presents empirical results found in the data along with their implications.</p> / Dissertation

Human-induced climate change, with its potentially catastrophic impacts on weather patterns, water resources, ecosystems, and agricultural production, is the toughest global problem of modern times. Impeding catastrophic climate change necessitates the widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies for reducing the emissions of heat-trapping gases, especially carbon di-oxide (CO₂). However, the deployment of renewable energy technologies is plagued by various market failures, such as environmental externalities from conventional energy sources, learning-by-doing, innovation spillover effects, and peer effects. In efforts to begin to address these market failures, several governments at all levels—city, state, regional, and national—have instituted various subsidies for promoting the adoption of renewable energy technologies. Public resources are limited and have competing uses. So, it is important to ask: how cost-effective are renewable energy subsidies? Are the subsidies even reaching the intended subjects—the potential adopters of renewable energy technologies? In this empirically-driven dissertation, I analyze these important policy design and evaluation questions with a focus on the solar subsidy programs in California. All programs to incentivize the adoption of renewable energy technologies run into the same key question: what is the optimal (maximum capacity inducing) rebate schedule in the face of volatile product prices and the need for policy certainty? Answering this question requires careful attention to both supply-side (learning-by-doing) and demand-side (peer effects) market dynamics. I use dynamic programming to analyze the effectiveness of the largest state-level solar photovoltaic (PV) subsidy program in the U.S. – the California Solar Initiative (CSI) – in maximizing the cumulative PV installation in California under a budget constraint. I find that previous studies overestimated learning-by-doing in the solar industry. Consistent with other studies, I also find that peer effects are a significant demand driver in the California solar market. The main implication of this empirical finding in the dynamic optimization context is that it forces the optimal solution towards higher subsidies in earlier years of the program, and, hence, leads to a lower program duration (for the same budget). In particular, I find that the optimal rebate schedule would start not at $2.5/W as it actually did in CSI, but instead at $4.2/W; the effective policy period would be only three years instead of the realized period of six years. This optimal (i.e., most cost effective) solution results in total PV adoption of 32.2 MW (8.1%) higher than that installed under CSI, using the same budget. Furthermore, I find that the optimal rebate schedule starts to look like the actual CSI in a ‘policy certainty’ scenario where the variation of periodic subsidy-level changes is constrained. Finally, introduction of stochastic learning-by-doing as a way to better capture the dynamic nature of learning in markets for new products does not yield significantly different results compared to the deterministic case. Another, still-unanswered, redistribution question related to the CSI program is: to what degree have the direct PV incentives in California been passed through from installers to consumers? I address this question by carefully examining the residential PV market in California by applying multiple methods. Specifically, I apply a structural-modeling approach, a reduced-form regression analysis, and regression discontinuity designs to estimate the incentive pass-through rate in California’s solar program. The results consistently suggest a high average pass-through rate of direct incentives of nearly 100%, though with regional differences among California counties and utilities. While these results could have multiple explanations, they suggest a relatively competitive market and a smoothly operating subsidy program. Combining evidence from the optimal subsidy policy design and the incentive pass-through analysis, this dissertation lends credibility to the cost-effectiveness of CSI given CSI’s design goal of providing policy certainty and also finds a near-perfect incidence in CSI. Long-term credible commitment as reflected through CSI’s capacity-triggered step changes in rebates along with policy and data transparency are important factors for CSI’s smooth and cost-effective functioning. Though CSI has now wound down because final solar capacity targets have been reached, the historical performance of CSI is relevant not only as an ex-post analysis in California, but potentially has broader policy implications for other solar incentive programs both nationally and internationally. / text