<p>In the beginning of 1990s Sweden implemented several measures in order to maintain price stability. These measures have resulted in an environment in which inflation is lower and more stable. The same development could be seen in other OECD countries. At the same time a decrease in exchange rate pass-through was noticed in many countries. This has led researchers to believe that there may be a connection, between these two phenomena. This dissertation analyzes whether there has been any change in exchange rate pass-through for manufacturing products in Sweden between the high inflation period (1977-1993) and the low inflation period (1994-2006). The result shows that there is a difference in the exchange rate pass-through between the two periods. During the low inflation period the degree of pass-through was lower than during the high inflation period.</p>

This thesis investigates the affect of non-emergency food aid on producer prices and production quantities for cereal grains within the recipient country’s economy. The decision to evaluate developmental or non-emergency food aid (NEFA) stems from a lack of research on a macro scale of disaggregated food aid categories and their implications on developing country producers. The Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region is the world’s largest recipient of direct transfer non-emergency food aid leaving the region most susceptible to the ambiguous affects of these food aid allocations. The results for this research suggests that not only are there no detectable disincentive effects but that there is little explanatory power from non-emergency food aid based on the 12 sample countries within the region. Additionally, an estimation of NEFA’s relationship with imports suggests that rather then an addition to total supply, the international trade composition is flexible.

Magister Commercii - MCom / This mini-thesis examines the speed and magnitude of exchange rate pass-through to domestic prices in South Africa. The shift from fixed exchange rate regimes to a system of floating exchange rates by many countries after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system increased the role of the exchange rate in the determination of inflation. In theory, exchange rate depreciation causes inflation via a process called exchange rate pass-through (ERPT). The effect of exchange rate variations on inflation is of special interest to policy makers especially for countries under inflation targeting regimes. The knowledge of the speed and magnitude of ERPT to domestic inflation (import, producer and consumer inflation) is important in the designing of an optimal monetary policy mix which is needed to ensure price stability. South Africa is one of the countries that moved to an inflation targeting regime under a system of a floating exchange rate. This study therefore aims to empirically determine the speed and magnitude of ERPT to domestic prices in the short run and long run using VAR and VEC models. The empirical results show that ERPT to import prices is immediate and moderately high reaching a peak of about 45% and 47% within three quarters for the VAR and VEC models respectively. In contrast, ERPT to producer and consumer prices is gradual and low. For instance, long-run ERPT is below 30% for producer prices and around 20% for consumer prices. Moreover, the results indicate a high pass-through (above 75%) of producer price shocks to consumer prices. In sharp contrast, the extent of pass-through of import price shocks to consumer prices as reported in the VECM is low at approximately 10% in the short run and declining to approximately 2% in the long run. / National Research Foundation (NRF)

In the beginning of 1990s Sweden implemented several measures in order to maintain price stability. These measures have resulted in an environment in which inflation is lower and more stable. The same development could be seen in other OECD countries. At the same time a decrease in exchange rate pass-through was noticed in many countries. This has led researchers to believe that there may be a connection, between these two phenomena. This dissertation analyzes whether there has been any change in exchange rate pass-through for manufacturing products in Sweden between the high inflation period (1977-1993) and the low inflation period (1994-2006). The result shows that there is a difference in the exchange rate pass-through between the two periods. During the low inflation period the degree of pass-through was lower than during the high inflation period.