The real exchange rate and quality improvements

This paper studies how the real exchange rate might respond to product innovation (improvements in the quality of goods) as opposed to process innovation (increased efficiency in the production of goods). We develop a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, where quality improvements affect both the demand and the supply side of the economy. We show that the real exchange rate defined in terms of prices per quality unit (quality-adjusted prices) does not always move in the same direction as that defined in terms unit prices (quality-unadjusted prices), illustrating the importance of measuring quality correctly.

Exchange rate pass-through into UK import prices

In this paper we estimate the rate of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) into UK import prices using disaggregate data at the SITC-2 and SITC-3 digit level. Consistent with earlier studies, we find evidence for significant heterogeneity among the estimated industry-specific pass-through rates. In an environment where cross-sectional heterogeneity is significant the use of aggregate data can be misleading since aggregation may lead to heavily biased ERPT estimates at the economy-wide level. We demonstrate that the aggregation bias caused by this heterogeneity is not negligible for the UK data. Further, we investigate the source of the cross-sectional variation in the estimated industry-specific pass-through rates. For our sample, we find the industry-specific average inflation rates to be significant in explaining this variation. Furthermore, we find evidence for short-run and long-run partial pass-through into food and manufacturing sectors. As for the economy-wide ERPT the conclusion stands, possibly reflecting the relatively large weight of manufacturing goods in UK imports. Finally, we find a significant reduction in estimated ERPT rates since 1995 caused by increased stability of the UK economy over the past decade.