US Infl ation and infl ation uncertainty in a historical perspective: The impact of recessions

We use over two hundred years of US inflation data to examine the impact of inflation uncertainty on inflation. An analysis of the full period without allowing for various regimes shows no impact of uncertainty on inflation. However, once we distinguish between recessions and non recessions, we find that inflation uncertainty has a negative effect on inflation only in recession times, thus providing support to the Holland hypothesis.asymmetric GARCH, recession, inflation uncertainty

Inflation, inflation uncertainty, and Markov regime switching heteroskedasticity: Evidence from European countries

We use a Markov regime-switching heteroskedasticity model in order to examine the association between inflation and inflation uncertainty in four European countries over the last forty years. This approach allows for regime shifts in both the mean and variance of inflation in order to assess the association between inflation and its uncertainty in short and long horizons. We find that this association differs (i) between transitory and permanent shocks to inflation and (ii) across countries. In particular, the association is positive or zero for transitory shocks and negative or zero for permanent shocks. Hence, Friedman's belief that inflation is positively associated with inflation uncertainty is only partially supported in this study, i.e., by short-run inflation uncertaintyInflation, Inflation uncertainty, Markov process, regime-switching heteroskedasticity

Oil Volatility and the Option Value of Waiting: An analysis of the G-7

There has recently been considerable interest in the potential adverse effects associated with excessive uncertainty in energy futures markets. Theoretical models of investment under uncertainty predict that increased uncertainty will tend to induce firms to delay investment. These models are widely utilized in capital budgeting decisions, particularly in the energy sector. There is relatively little empirical evidence, however, on whether such channels have industry-wide effects. Using a sample of G7 countries we examine whether uncertainty about a prominent commodity — oil — affects the time series variation in manufacturing activity. Our primary result is consistent with the predictions of real options theory — uncertainty about oil prices has had a negative and significant effect on manufacturing activity in Canada, France, UK and US.Oil, Volatility, Vector autoregression, Multivariate GARCH-in-Mean VAR

Macroeconomic Uncertainty and Performance in Asian Countries

We use a very general bivariate GARCH-M model and quarterly data for five Asian countries to test for the impact of real and nominal macroeconomic uncertainty on in°ation and output growth. We conclude the following. First, in the majority of countries uncertainty regarding the output growth rate is related negatively to the average growth rate. Second, contrary to expectations, infation uncertainty in most cases does not harm the output growth perfor- mance of an economy. Third, in°ation and output uncertainty have a mixed effect on inflation. Consistent results are found using the VAR-GARCH-M approach to investigate the dynamic relationship between in°ation and output growth using impulse response functions. This evidence implies that macroeconomic uncertainty may even improve macroeconomic performance, i.e., raise output growth and reduce inflation. Our empirical results highlight important differences with those for industrialized countries.Inflation, Output growth, Uncertainty, GARCH models

A GARCH Model of Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty with Simultaneous Feedback

We examine the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty using a GARCH model that allows for simultaneous feedback between the conditional mean and variance of inflation. We also derive a number of theoretical econometric results and illustrate the relevance of these results with an empirical example of the US monthly inflation process. Our results show that there is strong evidence in favour of a positive bi-directional relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty in agreement with the predictions of economic theory.Inflation, Inflation uncertainty, GARCH-M

A GARCH Model of Inflation and Inflation Uncertainty with Simultaneous Feedback

We examine the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty using a GARCH model that allows for simultaneous feedback between the conditional mean and variance of inflation. We also derive a number of theoretical econometric results and illustrate the relevance of these results with an empirical example of the US monthly inflation process. Our results show that there is strong evidence in favour of a positive bi-directional relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty in agreement with the predictions of economic theory.Inflation; Inflation Uncertainty; GARCH-M.

Inflation, inflation uncertainty and output growth: recent evidence from ASEAN-5 countries

This paper investigates the links between inflation, its uncertainty and economic growth in five ASEAN countries over the period 1980: Q1–2011: Q3. We rely on the Exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model to explore the causal relationship among the three variables. The major findings are: (i) inflation uncertainty increases more in response to positive inflation surprises than to negative surprises in all countries; (ii) inflationary shocks affect positively inflation uncertainty as predicted by the Friedman–Ball hypothesis; (iii) there is no evidence to suggest that inflation uncertainty causes inflation and; (iv) there is evidence that inflation affects growth negatively, both directly and indirectly (via the inflation uncertainty channel). The indirect effect is clearly stronger as it applies in all countries in the sample

A panel study on real interest rate parity in East Asian countries: pre- and post-liberalization era

This study examines the mean reverting behavior of real interest differentials in ten Asian economies using Japan as the base country. We obtain a number of interesting results: first, the conventional ADF test fails to support Real Interest Parity (RIP) for at least half of the countries, even for the post-financial liberalization period. Second, the evidence based on panel unit root tests demonstrates that real interest rate differentials exhibit mean reverting behavior and are characterized by long-memory dynamics. Finally, the evidence suggests that deviations from RIP have a half-life of approximately 6 to 7 months

On the sustainability of current account deficits: evidence from four ASEAN countries

This paper examines the sustainability of the current account imbalance for four ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand) over the 1961-1999 period. To this end, we utilize the intertemporal budget constraint (IBC) model to explain the behavior of the current account in these countries. The analysis is based on various unit root and cointegration procedures including those allowing for a structural break to deal with the major shortcomings of previous studies. The empirical results indicate clearly that for all countries, except Malaysia, current account deficits were not on the long-run steady state in the pre-crisis (1961-1997) era. This leads us to conclude that the current accounts of these countries were unsustainable and did not move towards external account equilibrium. Moreover, the persistent current account deficits might serve as a leading indicator of financial crises. In contrast, we find strong comovement between inflows and outflows in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand in the period including the post-crisis years, while Malaysia was on an unsustainable path. This is because macroeconomic performance of most of the ASEAN countries has changed dramatically since the onset of the Asian crisis in mid-1997. The evidence suggests that action to prevent large appreciations should have been taken prior to the 1997 crisis