García, Juan Angel (2000) Essays in credibility and the source of inflation persistence. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

In the first chapter we investigate the strategy of exchange rate pegging as a
solution to the lack of credibility of domestic monetary policy in the context of the
European Monetary System (EMS). Existing theoretical models cannot explain
the following features of the EMS and its crisis in 1992: its progressive hardening
from 1987 onwards; the fact that credibility was 'shared'; the progressive deterioration of credibility after the first Danish referendum without changes in the
economic fundamentals. We argue that the reason lies in the fact that the literature has not incorporated the changes in the perceived prospects of EMU. We
show that an adjustable peg regime that incorporates those prospects can explain
the three features listed above and provide an alternative interpretation of the
EMS crisis.
We then focus our attention on the short-run dynamics of U.S. inflation. U.S.
price inflation exhibits substantial inertia. The source of that inflation inertia is
however controversial. In the second part of the thesis, we derive a wage contracting specification that implies inflation persistence to investigate the role of
nominal rigidities to explain that degree of inertia. The contracting specification
is derived from intertemporal optimisation under two basic assumptions: (i) wage
staggering; (11) relative wage concern by wage-setters. The novelty is the analysis
of relative wage concern. In chapter 2 we review the existing evidence and
theoretical support pointing at relative wage concern as a fundamental factor in
the wage contracting process. In chapters 3 and 4, we build a dynamic general
equilibrium macromodel to study its implications.
In chapter 3 we investigate two potential sources of inflation inertia: the contracting
specification described above, and the lack of rationality of expectations.
We then carry out a test for the source of inflation inertia. Our empirical results
suggest that alternative sources of inertia beyond that imparted by the lack of full
rationality of expectations are needed to characterise U.S. inflation dynamics.
In chapter 4 we focus our investigation on the persistence of the real effects of
money shocks. In contrast to previous models of staggered wages/prices, output
and inflation persistence are robust findings of the model. Moreover, persistence
results hold for all the sensible parameterisations. Given the empirical evidence in
favour of the existence of a strong relative wage concern, we conclude that relative
concern may be the missing piece in the money shocks persistence puzzle
raised by recent literature.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Monetary policy -- Europe, European Monetary System (Organization), Foreign exchange rates -- Europe, Inflation (Finance) -- United States, Wages -- United States -- Econometric models
Official Date:	March 2000
Dates:	Date Event March 2000 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Economics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Miller, Marcus, 1941- ; Herrendorf, Berthold
Sponsors:	Fundación Ramón Areces ; País Vasco (Spain)
Extent:	210 leaves
Language:	eng

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