In this paper, we test whether public preferences for price stability (obtained from the Eurobarometer survey) are actually reflected in the interest rates set by eight central banks. We estimate augmented Taylor (1993) rules for the period 1976-1993 using the dynamic GMM estimator. We find,...

In this paper, we explore the interest rate setting behavior of newly appointed central bank governors. We use the Kuttner and Posen (2010) sample, which covers 15 OECD countries, and estimate an augmented Taylor (1993) rule for the period 1974–2008. We find, first, that newly appointed...

In this paper we reconsider the degree of international comovement of inflation rates. We use a dynamic hierarchical factor model that is able to decompose Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation in a panel of countries into (i) a factor common to all inflation series and all countries, (ii) a...

Previously, linear trends were revealed in the differences between the headline CPI and the price indices for various subcategories of the CPI in the United States. These trends can be continuous, as observed with the price index for medical care, or piecewise with turning points between trends...

1) Competitiveness adjustment in struggling southern euro-area members requires persistently lower inflation than in major trading partners, but low inflation worsens public debt sustainability. When average euro-area inflation undershoots the two percent target, the conflict between intra-euro...

On the basis of a disaggregated data set, we study inflation persistence in Hungary by focusing on regional cross-sectional variation. To this end, we use regional inflation series constructed from individual store-level price quotes. The price observations were collected for the CPI database at...

Empirical evidence suggests that inflation has positive effect on both output and unemployment in the long run in the United States. This paper develops a monetary model in which a higher inflation rate increases both output and unemployment. The model has two key features: (i) separation...

With a VAT increase, prices go up in the economy as businesses pass through the effects of the tax rise. Technically, this means that the consumer price index increases for one year; this is called the first-round effect. If, however, the expectations of economic agents are not completely...

We show that in both time-dependent and state-dependent sticky price models, prices of sticky price products (i.e. whose price changes rarely) contain more information about medium term inflation developments than those of flexible price products (i.e. whose price changes frequently). We do this...

This paper provides early assessments of current U.S. Nominal GDP growth, which has been con- sidered as a potential new monetary policy target. The nowcasts are computed using the exact amount of information that policy makers have available at the time predictions are made. However, real time...