Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103685
Susanto Basu
This discussion comments on the ambitious paper, “Understanding the International Rise and Fall of Inflation Since 2020,” by Mai Chi Dao, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Daniel Leigh, and Prachi Mishra. The strengths of the DGLM paper are manifest. There is much to learn from it, both about the commonalities of the inflation experiences of this large group of important countries and their differences, and I draw some lessons and policy implications. I will suggest that one could have learned even more if the authors had devoted some of their effort to comparing the recent global inflation episode to earlier experiences, and if they had related their empirical specification and results to predictions of models with search frictions.
本讨论对 Mai Chi Dao、Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas、Daniel Leigh 和 Prachi Mishra 所撰写的雄心勃勃的论文《理解 2020 年以来通货膨胀的国际涨落》进行了评论。DGLM 论文的优势显而易见。无论是关于这一大批重要国家的通货膨胀经验的共性,还是关于它们的差异,都有很多值得学习的地方。我想说的是,如果作者们能将最近的全球通胀事件与之前的经验进行比较,如果他们能将其经验规格和结果与搜索摩擦模型的预测联系起来,我们就能学到更多东西。
{"title":"Discussion of “Understanding the international rise and fall of inflation since 2020”","authors":"Susanto Basu","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103685","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103685","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This discussion comments on the ambitious paper, “Understanding the International Rise and Fall of Inflation Since 2020,” by Mai Chi Dao, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Daniel Leigh, and Prachi Mishra. The strengths of the DGLM paper are manifest. There is much to learn from it, both about the commonalities of the inflation experiences of this large group of important countries and their differences, and I draw some lessons and policy implications. I will suggest that one could have learned even more if the authors had devoted some of their effort to comparing the recent global inflation episode to earlier experiences, and if they had related their empirical specification and results to predictions of models with search frictions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103685"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142592894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103635
S. Borağan Aruoba, Thomas Drechsel
We study how monetary policy affects subcomponents of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) using local projections. Following a monetary policy contraction, the response of aggregate PCEPI turns significantly negative after over three years. There are stark differences in the timing and magnitude of the responses across price categories, including some prices that show an initially positive response. We discuss theoretical interpretations of our findings and point to useful directions for future theoretical research. We also show how to re-aggregate our cross-sectional estimates and their standard errors, taking into account dependence between different prices using a Seemingly Unrelated Regression approach. Re-aggregation exercises show that changes in expenditure behavior have not accelerated the long-lagged response of inflation to monetary policy.
{"title":"The long and variable lags of monetary policy: Evidence from disaggregated price indices","authors":"S. Borağan Aruoba, Thomas Drechsel","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study how monetary policy affects subcomponents of the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) using local projections. Following a monetary policy contraction, the response of aggregate PCEPI turns significantly negative after over three years. There are stark differences in the timing and magnitude of the responses across price categories, including some prices that show an initially positive response. We discuss theoretical interpretations of our findings and point to useful directions for future theoretical research. We also show how to re-aggregate our cross-sectional estimates and their standard errors, taking into account dependence between different prices using a Seemingly Unrelated Regression approach. Re-aggregation exercises show that changes in expenditure behavior have not accelerated the long-lagged response of inflation to monetary policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103635"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141871725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103656
Jan Hatzius
We discuss the lessons that economic forecasters have learned about inflation since the Covid shock. First, physical shortages—e.g., in the auto sector—can push up goods prices much more dramatically than most forecasters expected following several decades near price stability. Second, imbalances in the rental housing market can sharply increase inflation and keep it high, especially in economies such as the US where rents are used to impute owner-occupied housing costs. Third, the jobs-workers gap can be a better measure of labor market balance than the unemployment rate or the employment/population ratio.
Originally prepared for the Spring 2024 NBER conference on “Inflation in the Covid era and beyond”.
{"title":"Inflation: What we have learned and what we need to know","authors":"Jan Hatzius","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103656","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103656","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We discuss the lessons that economic forecasters have learned about inflation since the Covid shock. First, physical shortages—e.g., in the auto sector—can push up goods prices much more dramatically than most forecasters expected following several decades near price stability. Second, imbalances in the rental housing market can sharply increase inflation and keep it high, especially in economies such as the US where rents are used to impute owner-occupied housing costs. Third, the jobs-workers gap can be a better measure of labor market balance than the unemployment rate or the employment/population ratio.</div><div>Originally prepared for the Spring 2024 NBER conference on “Inflation in the Covid era and beyond”.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103656"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142177715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103616
Motivated by the 2018–19 global tariff war, we develop a multi-country trade model with occupational choice, heterogeneous firms, and unemployment. The model features a complete tariff pass-through and positive optimal tariffs addressing product and labor-market distortions. The quantitative analysis of the model with four countries/regions shows that raising tariffs unilaterally by a country increases welfare but also raises unemployment and top incomes in that country, whereas having the opposite impact on tariff-targeted countries. A global tariff war reduces every country’s welfare, unemployment, and top-income inequality, whereas moving from a worldwide tariff war to free trade raises every country’s welfare, unemployment, and top-income inequality.
{"title":"Tariff wars, unemployment, and top incomes","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103616","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103616","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span>Motivated by the 2018–19 global tariff war, we develop a multi-country trade model with occupational choice, heterogeneous firms, and unemployment. The model features a complete tariff pass-through and positive </span>optimal tariffs<span> addressing product and labor-market distortions. The quantitative analysis of the model with four countries/regions shows that raising tariffs unilaterally by a country increases welfare but also raises unemployment and top incomes in that country, whereas having the opposite impact on tariff-targeted countries. A global tariff war reduces every country’s welfare, unemployment, and top-income inequality, whereas moving from a worldwide tariff war to free trade raises every country’s welfare, unemployment, and top-income inequality.</span></div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103616"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141408635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103614
Negative interest rate regimes typically involve reserve tiering to exempt a portion of bank reserves from negative rates. We study the effects on bank behavior of a large and unanticipated change in reserve tiering by the Swiss National Bank that generated substantial variation across banks and was not related to other events. We find a sizable reallocation of liquidity and deposits within the banking system. Higher exemptions reduce the pass-through of negative rates to deposit rates, especially at retail banks with limited access to the interbank market. Effects on lending are moderate and suggest that higher profitability lessens pressure to reach for yield. Our results are informative about the transmission channels of monetary policy through the banking sector more broadly. We discuss how effects of reserve tiering may differ from effects of changes in interest rates, emphasizing that reserve tiering affects the economy through a narrower set of channels.
{"title":"Tiers of joy? Reserve tiering and bank behavior in a negative-rate environment","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Negative interest rate regimes typically involve reserve tiering to exempt a portion of bank reserves from negative rates. We study the effects on bank behavior of a large and unanticipated change in reserve tiering by the Swiss National Bank that generated substantial variation across banks and was not related to other events. We find a sizable reallocation of liquidity and deposits within the banking system. Higher exemptions reduce the pass-through of negative rates to deposit rates, especially at retail banks with limited access to the interbank market. Effects on lending are moderate and suggest that higher profitability lessens pressure to reach for yield. Our results are informative about the transmission channels of monetary policy through the banking sector more broadly. We discuss how effects of reserve tiering may differ from effects of changes in interest rates, emphasizing that reserve tiering affects the economy through a narrower set of channels.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103614"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141412880","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103671
Filippo Pallotti , Gonzalo Paz-Pardo , Jiri Slacalek , Oreste Tristani , Giovanni L. Violante
We measure the heterogeneous first-order welfare effects of the recent inflation surge across households in the euro area. A simple framework illustrating the numerous transmission channels of surprise inflation to household welfare guides our empirical exercise. By combining micro data and aggregate time series, we conclude that: (i) country-level average welfare costs – expressed as a share of triennial income – were sizable and heterogeneous: around 3% in France and Spain, 7% in Germany, and 9% in Italy; (ii) this inflation episode resembles an age-dependent tax, with the retirees losing up to 14%, and roughly half of the 25–44 year-old winning; (iii) losses were quite uniform across consumption quantiles because rigid rents served as a hedge for the poor; (iv) nominal net positions were the key driver of heterogeneity across-households; (v) the rise in energy prices generated vast variation in individual-level inflation rates, but unconventional fiscal policies helped shield households. The counterpart of this household-sector loss is a significant gain for the government.
{"title":"Who bears the costs of inflation? Euro area households and the 2021–2023 shock","authors":"Filippo Pallotti , Gonzalo Paz-Pardo , Jiri Slacalek , Oreste Tristani , Giovanni L. Violante","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103671","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103671","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We measure the heterogeneous first-order welfare effects of the recent inflation surge across households in the euro area. A simple framework illustrating the numerous transmission channels of surprise inflation to household welfare guides our empirical exercise. By combining micro data and aggregate time series, we conclude that: (i) country-level average welfare costs – expressed as a share of triennial income – were sizable and heterogeneous: around 3% in France and Spain, 7% in Germany, and 9% in Italy; (ii) this inflation episode resembles an age-dependent tax, with the retirees losing up to 14%, and roughly half of the 25–44 year-old winning; (iii) losses were quite uniform across consumption quantiles because rigid rents served as a hedge for the poor; (iv) nominal net positions were the key driver of heterogeneity across-households; (v) the rise in energy prices generated vast variation in individual-level inflation rates, but unconventional fiscal policies helped shield households. The counterpart of this household-sector loss is a significant gain for the government.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103671"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142177709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103658
Mai Chi Dao , Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas , Daniel Leigh , Prachi Mishra
This paper analyzes inflation dynamics in 21 advanced and emerging market economies since 2020. We decompose inflation into core inflation as measured by the weighted median inflation rate, and headline shocks—deviations of headline inflation from core. Headline shocks occurred largely on account of energy price changes, although food price changes and indicators of supply chain problems also played a role. We explain the evolution of core inflation with two factors: the strength of macroeconomic conditions—measured by the unemployment gap, the output gap, and the ratio of job vacancies to unemployment—and the pass-through into core inflation from past headline shocks. We conclude that the international rise and fall of inflation since 2020 largely reflected the direct and pass-through effects of headline shocks. Macroeconomic conditions generally played a secondary role. In the United States, estimated price pressures from strong macroeconomic conditions had been greater than in other economies but have eased.
{"title":"Understanding the international rise and fall of inflation since 2020","authors":"Mai Chi Dao , Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas , Daniel Leigh , Prachi Mishra","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103658","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103658","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper analyzes inflation dynamics in 21 advanced and emerging market economies since 2020. We decompose inflation into core inflation as measured by the weighted median inflation rate, and headline shocks—deviations of headline inflation from core. Headline shocks occurred largely on account of energy price changes, although food price changes and indicators of supply chain problems also played a role. We explain the evolution of core inflation with two factors: the strength of macroeconomic conditions—measured by the unemployment gap, the output gap, and the ratio of job vacancies to unemployment—and the pass-through into core inflation from past headline shocks. We conclude that the international rise and fall of inflation since 2020 largely reflected the direct and pass-through effects of headline shocks. Macroeconomic conditions generally played a secondary role. In the United States, estimated price pressures from strong macroeconomic conditions had been greater than in other economies but have eased.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103658"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142177731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103610
This paper proposes a theory of the dynamics of factor shares within the context of an equilibrium model of endogenous innovation, growth, and cycles. Our deterministic model rests on two assumptions: (i) production requires two complementary inputs, capital, and labor, and (ii) technical progress is labor-saving and embodied in capital goods. The model’s unique equilibrium path displays recurring growth cycles, each consisting of an adoption and innovation phase, along which factor shares fluctuate within bounds. The interaction between factor prices and opportunities for labor-saving innovations brings about both persistent growth and aggregate oscillations through which it takes place. We provide evidence that the model-implied correlations between factor shares and the other labor market variables are consistent with the data.
{"title":"A theory of the dynamics of factor shares","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div><span>This paper proposes a theory of the dynamics of factor shares within the context of an equilibrium model of endogenous innovation, growth, and cycles. Our deterministic model rests on two assumptions: (i) production requires two complementary inputs, capital, and labor, and (ii) technical progress is labor-saving and embodied in capital goods. The model’s unique equilibrium path displays recurring growth cycles, each consisting of an adoption and innovation phase, along which factor shares fluctuate within bounds. The interaction between factor prices and opportunities for labor-saving innovations brings about both persistent growth and aggregate oscillations through which it takes place. We provide evidence that the model-implied correlations between factor shares and the other </span>labor market variables are consistent with the data.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103610"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141135426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103600
This paper investigates contagion in financial networks through collateralized debt and its effects on social welfare. Our model incorporates contagion through both counterparty debt exposures and endogenous collateral asset pricing. We find that collateral mitigates counterparty exposures and reduces social inefficiency when faced with negative shocks, but not always. We also show the importance of the interaction between the level of collateral and network structure as contagion can change dramatically depending on that interaction. The model also provides policy-relevant collateral-to-debt ratios (haircuts) to attain robust and fully insulated macroprudential states for any network and also the optimal collateral ratio to attain full insulation for a specific network.
{"title":"Contagion in debt and collateral markets","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103600","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103600","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates contagion in financial networks through collateralized debt and its effects on social welfare. Our model incorporates contagion through both counterparty debt exposures and endogenous collateral asset pricing. We find that collateral mitigates counterparty exposures and reduces social inefficiency when faced with negative shocks, but not always. We also show the importance of the interaction between the level of collateral and network structure as contagion can change dramatically depending on that interaction. The model also provides policy-relevant collateral-to-debt ratios (haircuts) to attain robust and fully insulated macroprudential states for any network and also the optimal collateral ratio to attain full insulation for a specific network.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"148 ","pages":"Article 103600"},"PeriodicalIF":4.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141152272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-12DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103684
Markus Poschke
Poor countries have low wage employment and high self-employment. This paper shows that they also have high unemployment relative to wage employment, and that self-employment increases with this ratio. To understand the sources of these patterns, I build a search and matching model with choice between job search and self-employment and with learning about matches, and calibrate it to match all transition rates between wage employment, unemployment and self-employment as well as separation hazards by job duration, separately for all 37 countries with available data. Quantitative analysis of the model shows that labor market frictions affect self-employment as much as unemployment. Labor market frictions also reduce aggregate output, not only by raising unemployment, but also by worsening the average quality of both wage employment matches and active self-employment projects.
{"title":"Wage employment, unemployment and self-employment across countries","authors":"Markus Poschke","doi":"10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103684","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103684","url":null,"abstract":"Poor countries have low wage employment and high self-employment. This paper shows that they also have high unemployment relative to wage employment, and that self-employment increases with this ratio. To understand the sources of these patterns, I build a search and matching model with choice between job search and self-employment and with learning about matches, and calibrate it to match all transition rates between wage employment, unemployment and self-employment as well as separation hazards by job duration, separately for all 37 countries with available data. Quantitative analysis of the model shows that labor market frictions affect self-employment as much as unemployment. Labor market frictions also reduce aggregate output, not only by raising unemployment, but also by worsening the average quality of both wage employment matches and active self-employment projects.","PeriodicalId":48407,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Monetary Economics","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2024-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142269890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}