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This thesis directs attention to the way in which the economics profession has sought to explain the phenomenon of inflation. The first half is primarily a detailed survey of the mainstream postwar literature in this area. The first five chapters provide a comprehensive review and a critical reappraisal of the basic theoretical contributions of successive theorists. The second half of the thesis proposes an alternative approach built essentially upon the early ideas of the neo-Wicksellian over-investment writers and upon the underlying 'structural' model found in Keynes' Treatise on Money. The problem of whether market organization affects the relationship between inflation and the structure of output and employment is also examined, and it is found to be of little importance. The Keynes-Wicksell structural model is then tested against Canadian time-series data for the period 1924-1981. Despite uneven results, the empirical findings give definite importance to the structural variable in explaining price formation in Canada. Finally, the concluding chapter discusses some of the policy issues arising from this structural approach.

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Lo, Kai Lisa. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-46). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- Literature Review --- p.10 / Chapter 3. --- Measuring the Labor Share with US Data --- p.14 / Chapter 3.1 --- Definition and Measurement --- p.14 / Chapter 3.2 --- Some Crude Evidence --- p.16 / Chapter 4. --- A Theoretical Relationship between Labor Share and Inflation in an Open Economy --- p.19 / Chapter 4.1 --- A Static Closed-economy Pricing Model --- p.20 / Chapter 4.2 --- Dynamic Model Based on Quadratic Adjustment Costs --- p.22 / Chapter 4.3 --- An Open-economy Dynamic Pricing Model --- p.30 / Chapter 5. --- An Empirical Investigation --- p.34 / Chapter 5.1 --- Data --- p.34 / Chapter 5.2 --- Estimation Results --- p.36 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- General Findings --- p.37 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- The Role of Adjustment Costs --- p.39 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Predicting U.S. Inflation --- p.40 / Chapter 6. --- Conclusions --- p.42 / References --- p.43 / Figures and Tables --- p.47 / Data Appendix --- p.56

This study investigates the relationship between stagflation and price stability and full employment and four economic scenarios and the economic condition. The data used in the study were obtained from government publications and were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. The standard inferential apparatus were employed. Give independent variables were found to be significant in explaining the causes of stagflation. These were: absolute change in M1, oil embargo of 1974, corporate profits, output per hour, and Iranian crisis of 1979. In conclusion, the causes of economic instability do not rest with one single theory or factor, but a combination of several.

The effects of monetary policy on real economic variables have been debated for some time. This debate became more intense after the discovery of the Phillips curve which appeared to show a stable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. This curve in its original form has now been abandoned and debate has centered around the question of a short run trade-off. It is this question, do short-run trade-offs exist and if so, why, and what affects their length, that this dissertation addresses. Chapter II explores this question in a model where the Federal Reserve does not have full credibility among all the agents in the economy and where beliefs are endogenous. It is shown that when the Federal Reserve announces a new monetary policy rule, temporary nonneutrality of money can result if some agents are skeptical of the Fed's intentions to follow the announced rule or if some agents merely believe some other agents are skeptical whether or not they truly are. The magnitude of the trade-off depends on the proportion of agents who are skeptical and how different the old and new rules are. The length of time the trade-off exists depends on how skeptical the agents are. The more skeptical they are, the longer it takes the Fed to convince these agents that it is following and will continue to follow the announced rule. Chapter III develops an empirical model to determine if the evidence supports the existence of short-run trade-offs in general and the credibility implications in particular. A Bayesian Vector Autoregression is used for the estimations. It is shown that short-run trade-offs do exist and do vary in length and magnitude. These variations are related to the implications of the credibility theory. It is found the degree of skepticism and the proportion of agents who are skeptical could have caused these short-run trade-offs to vary in length and magnitude. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 1982 / Includes bibliographies. / by Charles Richard Bean. / Ph. D. / Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics