High inflation economies, especially the Latin American cases like Argentina and Brazil, have ultimately been successful in stabilising their prices using the exchange rate as a nominal anchor. Contrary to conventional wisdom inflation in these cases has not been reduced at the cost of temporary recessions, instead, they have shown positive output effects. Various theoretical explanations of such boom-cycles are discussed and a model generating such an outcome is developed. Some empirical evidence is given by the Brazilian "Real Plan" of 1994. Nevertheless, the medium and long-term effects of such programmes can result in recessions and a resumption of high inflation, although the cases show that such "postponed stabilisation costs" can be overcome by adequate and flexible supply-side policies accompanying the stabilisation programme. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Al intentar explicar los fenómenos inflacionarios, la teoría económica ha utilizado modelos que resultan validos bajo situaciones extremas, como la alta inflación y la inflación baja. Existen, sin embargo, episodios donde el crecimiento de precios se sitúa en un rango intermedio, ni lo suficientemente alto como para representar un inconveniente severo para la actividad económica ni tan bajo como para considerarlo irrelevante. El siguiente trabajo intenta identificar este tipo de episodios al tiempo que se propone un marco conceptual para abordarlos. Finalmente, se intenta observar la forma en la que algunos países han realizado transiciones exitosas desde inflaciones moderadas hacia niveles de inflación baja.

High inflation economies have ultimately been successful in stabilising their prices using the exchange rate as a nominal anchor. Besides stabilization, these recent examples have shown boom-recession cycles, contrary to what can be expected from (pure) money-based stabilizations. Various theoretical explanations of such boom-cycles are discussed and a model of aggregate supply and demand generating such an outcome is developed. There the boom dynamics depend mainly on a slump in real interest rates and wage flexibility. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

We augment a standard monetary VAR on output growth, inflation and the nominal interest rate with the central bank's inflation target, which we estimate from a New Keynesian DSGE model. Inflation target shocks give rise to a simultaneous increase in inflation and the nominal interest rate in the short run, at no output expense, which stands at the center of an active current debate on the Neo-Fisher effect. In addition, accounting for persistent monetary policy changes reflected in inflation target changes improves identification of a standard temporary nominal interest rate shock in that it strongly alleviates the price puzzle. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

MEMS structures utilizing the piezoelectric effect are used to fabricate a wide variation of sensingand actuating devices. The most common piezoelectric material for MEMS is PZT which has beenintensively investigated. In order to improve the performance of PZT and create materialsoptimized for specific applications, altered versions of PZT are being investigated. One way toalter the behavior of PZT is to introduce dopants. In this work, doped and non-doped PZT filmshave been fabricated using the sol-gel deposition process and the transverse piezoelectriccoefficient (e31) value of these films has been measured. Two types of dopants have been used tosee if these dopants could boost the e31 making the film more suitable for energy harvestingapplications. Furthermore processes alteration has been performed to increase the quality andthroughput of the PZT film fabricated at Silex Microsystems. The quality of the film could be seenby inspecting the level of non-uniform areas in regards to color and clarity of the film. The qualitywas improved and the color and clarity uniformity across the wafer was visibly improved. Thethroughput of the PZT deposition process was increased by ~33% by finding an alternative processrequiring fewer crystallization steps. One type of dopant gives an e31 increase of ~12% compared to the highest e31 value previously obtained at Silex Microsystems using non-doped PZT. / Piezoelektrisk MEMS används för att konstruera många olika sorters av sensorer och aktuatorer.Det piezoelektriska material som används mest frekvent inom MEMS är PZT, vilket har blivitintensivt undersökt. För att förbättra prestandan hos PZT och skapa material optimerade förspecifika applikationer, undersöks olika modifikationer av PZT. Ett sätt att modifiera egenskapernahos PZT är att introducera dopningsämnen. I detta arbete har filmer av dopad och odopad PZTtillverkats med en sol-gelprocess och e31-värdet hos dessa filmer har mätts. Två typer avdopningsämnen har använts för att se om ett högre e31-värde kunde nås vilket skulle göra filmenbättre för ”energy harvesting” tillämpningar. Dessutom har process-modifikationer gjorts för attförbättra sol-gel processen hos Silex Microsystems. Modifikationerna gjordes med målet attförbättra kvaliteten hos filmen och minska processtiden. Kvaliteten hos filmen kunde observerasgenom att se i vilken utsträckning filmen var uniform i färg och klarhet. Efter modifikationerna påprocessen så förbättrades både dessa aspekter. Färgskillnader kunde inte längre observeras påfilmen och klarheten ökade. Produktionstiden minskade med ~33% med hjälp av en stabilalternativ process som krävde färre kristalliseringssteg. Ett av dopningsämnena förbättrade e31-värdet med ~12% jämfört med det e31-värdet hos den odopade filmen tidigare skapad av SilexMicrosystems.

Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2014

We estimate a multivariate unobserved components stochastic volatility model to explain the dynamics of a panel of six exchange rates against the US Dollar. The empirical model is based on the assumption that both countries' monetary policy strategies may be well described by Taylor rules with a time-varying inflation target, a time-varying natural rate of unemployment, and interest rate smoothing. The estimates closely track major movements along with important time series properties of real and nominal exchange rates across all currencies considered. The model generally outperforms a benchmark model that does not account for changes in trend inflation and trend unemployment. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This study examines the dynamic relationship between changes in oil prices and the economic policy uncertainty index for a sample of both net oil-exporting and net oil-importing countries over the period 1997:01-2013:06. To achieve that, we extend the Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012) dynamic spillover index using structural decomposition. The results reveal that economic policy uncertainty (oil price shocks) responds negatively to aggregate demand oil price shocks (economic policy uncertainty shocks). Furthermore, during the Great Recession of 2007-2009, total spillovers increase considerably, reaching unprecedented heights. Moreover, in net terms, economic policy uncertainty becomes the dominant transmitter of shocks between 1997 and 2009, while in the post-2009 period there is a significant role for supply-side and oil specific demand shocks, as net transmitters of spillover effects. These results are important for policy makers, as well as, investors interested in the oil market. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The treatment of owner-occupied housing (OOH) is probably the most important unresolved issue in inflation measurement. How -- and whether -- it is included in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) affects inflation expectations, the measured level of real interest rates, and the behavior of governments, central banks and market participants. We show that none of the existing treatments of OOH are fit for purpose. Hence we propose a new simplified user cost method with better properties. Using a micro-level dataset, we then compare the empirical behavior of eight different treatments of OOH. Our preferred user cost approach pushes up the CPI during housing booms (by 2 percentage points or more). Our findings relate to the following important debates in macroeconomics: the behavior of the Phillips curve in the US during the global financial crisis, and the response of monetary policy to housing booms, secular stagnation, and globalization. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series