This study provides empirical evidence of aggregate, anticipated and unanticipated and asymmetric (positive and negative) effects of monetary policy on real agricultural prices in South Africa over the monthly period of 1970:01-2010:12. For this purpose, we use the Vector Autoregressive (VAR)...

This work presents five structural co-integrating VAR models used to describe the economies of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain in the years 1983-1998 and to analyse their economic policies. Shortrun dynamics move around the long-run structure, represented by money, goods and...

We test for state-dependent bias in the European Central Bank's inflation projections. We show that the ECB tends to underpredict when the observed inflation rate at the time of forecasting is higher than an estimated threshold of 1.8%. The bias is most pronounced at intermediate forecasting...

This paper tests a version of the rational expectations hypothesis using 'fixed-event' inflation forecasts for the UK. Fixed-event forecasts consist of a panel of forecasts for a set of outturns of a series at varying horizons prior to each outturn. The forecasts are the prediction of fund...

This paper analyzes the cause-and-effect relationships between the Fed’s balance sheet and consumer prices, and between the federal government debt and the Fed’s balance sheet during the period 2008Q1to 2021Q4. Although contemporaneous Fed purchases of public and private sector debt and...

The recent surge in consumer prices beginning in 2021 has been attributed by government officials to supply chain disruptions, war in Ukraine, the coronavirus pandemic, and corporate greed. Between 2008Q4 and 2021Q1 the consumer price index (CPI) increased 32 percent from about 211 to 280....

This paper examines the effect of changes in Federal Reserve assets and consumer prices during the stewardship of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Since his appointment in February 2018 until July 2022, the average monthly increase in consumer prices was 0.31 percent—more than 2.4 times...

We provide an analysis of cash trends in Canada before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the pandemic period, we explore the implications on demand for, use of and access to cash. We find that cash demand has been strong pre-pandemic and increased sharply during the pandemic. While...

We test for bias and efficiency of the ECB inflation forecasts using a confidential dataset of ECB macroeconomic quarterly projections. We investigate whether the properties of the forecasts depend on the level of inflation, by distinguishing whether the inflation observed by the ECB at the time...

We discuss the payment habits of Canadians both in the current payment environment and in a hypothetical cashless environment. We also consider whether a central bank digital currency (CBDC) would address unmet payment needs in a cashless society. Most adult Canadians do not experience gaps in...