D.Com. (Economics) / This study covers the possible causes of inflation in South Africa. Inflation is usually defined as a period of sustained increase in the general price level. The South African inflation rate has accelerated from a moderate start in the early 1960's, and has shown a persistent resistance to regain former levels ever since. This resistance called for an identification of the causes of inflation and for some light to be shed on the inflation process experienced in South Africa since 1965. The aim of the investigation was, firstly, to estimate an inflation function: and, secondly, to simulate the inflation rate. The study was carried out in two stages. In the first, a survey was carried out of all the applicable inflation theories. The conventional inflation theories, the quantity monetary theory and the demand-pull and cost-push theories were analysed. Consequently, the new inflation theories were discussed. The discussion starts off with an analysis of the Phillips curve, as interpreted by R. Lipsey, and the differentiation by Friedman and Phelps between the short-run and long-run Phillips curves, through to the criticism by the School of Rational Expectation.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1983. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-142). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

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

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).

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.

No description available.

This thesis makes an analysis of the major inflationary mechanisms that origins from factors inherent to Russia's new economic environment since the beginning of the reform program in January 1992. After some theoretical clarifications over the two different views of the inflationary dynamics, (i.e. the monetary and the fiscal view), an accurate picture of the inflationary structures of the industrial and the financial sector will be made. Then the various factors (other than the January's price liberalization) responsible for the persistence of the high level of inflation in the country will be systematically studied (i.e. firms' soft budget constraint, indexation mechanisms and inflation inertia process, dollarization and depreciation of the ruble, and the use of seigniorage by the government). An anti-inflationary program including an efficient bankruptcy law, a tax-payment and government-bond indexation, is proposed. However, political pressures coming from various coalitions hostile to the economic reform are viewed as what activate the inflationary process in Russia.

No description available.