Credibility Effects of Price Controls in Disinflation Programs

Credibility Effects of Price Controls in Disinflation Programs PDF Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451850484
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
This paper examines whether price controls may enhance the credibility of a disinflation program, using a framework in which agents behave strategically. The analysis indicates that a partial price freeze is not fully credible, and may result in inflation inertia. The authorities may be able to determine optimally the intensity of price controls so as to minimize the policy loss associated with a discretionary monetary strategy. But the optimal intensity of controls is shown to be significantly different from zero only if the cost of enforcing price ceilings is not too high, or if the weight attached to price distortions in the policymaker’s loss function is small.

Credibility Effects of Price Controls in Disinflation Programs

Credibility Effects of Price Controls in Disinflation Programs PDF Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451850484
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 23

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Book Description
This paper examines whether price controls may enhance the credibility of a disinflation program, using a framework in which agents behave strategically. The analysis indicates that a partial price freeze is not fully credible, and may result in inflation inertia. The authorities may be able to determine optimally the intensity of price controls so as to minimize the policy loss associated with a discretionary monetary strategy. But the optimal intensity of controls is shown to be significantly different from zero only if the cost of enforcing price ceilings is not too high, or if the weight attached to price distortions in the policymaker’s loss function is small.

Credibility effects of price controls in disinflation programs

Credibility effects of price controls in disinflation programs PDF Author: Fondo Monetario Internacional
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : es
Pages : 17

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Book Description


Monopolistic Competition, Credibility and the Output Costs of Disinflation Programs

Monopolistic Competition, Credibility and the Output Costs of Disinflation Programs PDF Author: Sweder Van Wijnbergen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Competition
Languages : en
Pages : 47

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Book Description
Brazil, Argentina and Israel all used price controls as part of disinflation programs in 1985-1986. In each case they were intended to break an "inertial" component of inflation. This paper focuses on a specific mechanism through which inflation inertia can emerge: the interaction between lack of credibility of government monetary policy announcements and the price setting behavior of forward looking firms. We show that this interaction can lead to inertia extending well beyond the price setting period; that is important since the price setting period is likely to be short in high inflation economies. We develop an open economy macromodel in which firms set prices before uncertainty about government monetary policy is resolved. Lack of credibility is then shown to lead to output losses during a disinflation program. We demonstrate the effects of price controls and show that their temporary use can be defended on welfare grounds. The paper analyzes asset price behavior during disinflation programs with and without price controls and the influence of credibility problems. We discuss nominal and real interest rates, the stock market and exchange rates. Finally we show that if past government policy has any information content about future government policy, cheating on current announcements of tight policy buys current employment gains during the price control period at the cost of higher inflation afterwards. Sustaining low inflation after the price control period thus requires restrictive monetary policy during the price control period

Supply-Side Effects of Disinflation Programs

Supply-Side Effects of Disinflation Programs PDF Author: Mr.Jorge Roldos
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451954425
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
This paper focuses on the short-run and long-run supply-side effects of disinflation programs in a two-sector economy. Fixing the exchange rate reduces the wedge between the return on foreign assets and that on domestic capital, leading to an increase in the latter. After an initial real exchange rate appreciation and increase in the production of nontradables—due to a consumption boom—the new capital is gradually installed in the tradable sector. During this transitional period, further real appreciation takes place—as the expansion of the tradable sector pulls labor away from the nontradable sector—together with investment-driven deficits in the current account. We conclude that when appreciation and deficits are due to supply-side rigidities, rather than to credibility and/or price stickiness, no further policies (i.e., capital controls, incomes policies) are advisable.

Price Controls and Electoral Cycles

Price Controls and Electoral Cycles PDF Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451851227
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
This paper studies the interactions between electoral considerations and the imposition of price controls by opportunistic policymakers. The analysis shows that a policy cycle emerges in which price controls are imposed in periods leading to the election, and removed immediately afterwards. The shape of the cycle is shown to depend on the periodicity of elections, the relative weight attached by the public to inflation as opposed to the macroeconomic distortions associated with price controls, the nature of wage contracts, and the degree of uncertainty about the term in office.

Signalling, Wage Controls and Monetary Disinflation Policy

Signalling, Wage Controls and Monetary Disinflation Policy PDF Author: Torsten Persson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic stabilization
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
Wage and price controls have a long and somewhat disreputable history, presumably because of their frequent use in many countries as short run substitutes for measure~ with more lasting effects on the inflation rate. But, in 1985 and 1986, Argentina, Brazil, and Israel used extensive wage-price controls as part of more comprehensive disinflation programs, .often labeled "heterodox" stabilization programs. To date, the Israeli stabilization seems to have succeeded, while the Argentinean and Brazilian stabi1izations have clearly ended in failure. This experience raises many questions. One view is that controlling one nominal variable, namely the money supply, is enough to bring down inflation provided that sound fiscal policies are also adopted. Therefore, wage and price controls should be avoided, because of their microeconomic costs. It is clear that controls do have microeconomic costs, but can they also have macroeconomic benefits? Under which circumstances do controls help in bringing down inflation, and when do they just suppress it temporarily? What is the required supporting role of fiscal and monetary policy while they are in place? These are the issues addressed in this paper.

Supply-Side Effects of Disinflation Programs

Supply-Side Effects of Disinflation Programs PDF Author: Jorge Roldós
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
This paper focuses on the short-run and long-run supply-side effects of disinflation programs in a two-sector economy. Fixing the exchange rate reduces the wedge between the return on foreign assets and that on domestic capital, leading to an increase in the latter. After an initial real exchange rate appreciation and increase in the production of nontradables--due to a consumption boom--the new capital is gradually installed in the tradable sector. During this transitional period, further real appreciation takes place--as the expansion of the tradable sector pulls labor away from the nontradable sector--together with investment-driven deficits in the current account. We conclude that when appreciation and deficits are due to supply-side rigidities, rather than to credibility and/or price stickiness, no further policies (i.e., capital controls, incomes policies) are advisable.

Testing for Credibility Effects

Testing for Credibility Effects PDF Author: Mr.Mark P. Taylor
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451853254
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
This paper examines some recent techniques designed to draw inferences about the credibility of changes in macroeconomic policy regimes. An alternative two-step approach, based on the decomposition between permanent and transitory components of a "credibility variable" is proposed. The methodology is then used to test for the existence of a credibility effect in the Cruzado stabilization plan implemented in Brazil in 1986.

Disinflation in Transition Economies

Disinflation in Transition Economies PDF Author: Ms.Sharmini Coorey
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451930062
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
In light of the persistence of moderate inflation in many transition economies, this paper analyzes whether inflation resulted from insufficiently tight financial policies and wage pressures or from the protracted adjustment of relative prices. Using a new database for 21 countries, the effect of relative price variability on inflation is estimated within a framework controlling for nominal and real shocks. Money and wage growth were the most important determinants of inflation; relative price variability had a sizable effect at high inflation during initial liberalization and a small effect at moderate inflation. Cost recovery may contribute to variability, particularly in the advanced stages of the transition.

The Economics of Adjustment and Growth

The Economics of Adjustment and Growth PDF Author: Pierre-Richard Agénor
Publisher: La Editorial, UPR
ISBN: 9780674015784
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 794

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Book Description
This book provides a systematic and coherent framework for understanding the interactions between the micro and macro dimensions of economic adjustment policies; that is, it explores short-run macroeconomic management and structural adjustment policies aimed at promoting economic growth. It emphasizes the importance of structural microeconomic characteristics in the transmission of policy shocks and the response of the economy to adjustment policies. It has particular relevance to the economics of developing countries. The book is directed to economists interested in an overview of the economics of reform; economists in international organizations, such as the UN, the IMF, and the World Bank, dealing with development; and economists in developing countries. It is also a text for advanced undergraduate students pursuing a degree in economic policy and management and students in political science and public policy.