The Relationship between Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty and Output Growth in India

The aim of this paper is to analyse the dynamics relationships between inflation, output growth, and real and nominal uncertainty using the VARFIMA-BEKK MGARCH model of inflation and output growth and quarterly data for the UK covering the 1957:Q2–2006:Q4 period. The analysis is also done for the three sub-periods determined by considering the structural changes such as the Great Moderation in the series of the UK. Two findings are obtained. First, the evidence obtained from the full period supports a number of important conclusions, one of which is mixed evidence regarding the effect of inflation on inflation uncertainty, another one being strong evidence regarding the positive effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation and output growth. Taking this into account, it is possible to put forward that an essential determinant of economic growth is uncertainty about the inflation rate. The last finding for this period is that output growth uncertainty is a positive determinant of the inflation and output growth rate. Second, the evidence found from the sub-periods is that there are no linkages between inflation, output growth and their volatility.

We use a bivariate generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) model of inflation and output growth to examine the causality relationship among nominal uncertainty, real uncertainty and macroeconomic performance measured by the inflation and output growth rates. The application of the constant conditional correlation GARCH(1,1) model leads to a number of interesting conclusions. First, inflation does cause negative welfare effects, both directly and indirectly, i.e. via the inflation uncertainty channel. Secondly, in some countries, more inflation uncertainty provides an incentive to Central Banks to surprise the public by raising inflation unexpectedly. Thirdly, in contrast to the assumptions of some macroeconomic models, business cycle variability and the rate of economic growth are related. More variability in the business cycle leads to more output growth.

Inflation, output growth, and nominal and real uncertainty: Empirical evidence for the G7

In this paper, we examine causal relationships between inflation rate, output growth rate, inflation uncertainty, and output uncertainty for ten Central and Eastern European transition countries. For this purpose, we estimate a bivariate GARCH model that includes output growth and inflation rates for each country. Then we use conditional standard deviations of inflation and output to proxy nominal and real uncertainty, respectively, and perform Granger causality tests. Our results suggest that inflation rate induces uncertainty about both inflation rate and output growth rate, which is detrimental to real economic activity. At the same time, we find that output growth rate reduces macroeconomic uncertainty in some countries. In addition, we also examine and discuss causal relationships between the remaining variables.

Macroeconomic uncertainty and performance in the European Union

On the real effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty in Mexico

We identify international output and inflation uncertainty and analyze their impact on individual countries' macroeconomic performance. Output and inflation uncertainty on an international level is measured through the conditional variances of common factors in inflation and output growth, estimated from a bivariate dynamic factor model with GARCH errors. The impact of international and country-specific uncertainty is analyzed by including the conditional variances as regressors. We find increases in uncertainty during the first and second oil crisis, the 1980s and 1990s recessions as well as the recent Great Recession to be confined to the international level. The effect of international uncertainty results to be highly significant and unambiguously negative on countries' output growth and inflation rates whereas the impact of country-specific uncertainty is very mixed.

Employing a bivariate regime switching model, this paper attempts to examine the regime‐dependent effects of inflation uncertainty and output growth uncertainty on inflation and output growth. Using monthly data of the United Kingdom and the United States, we provide evidence that both nominal and real uncertainty exert regime‐dependent impacts on inflation. Furthermore, in case of both the countries, inflation uncertainty has adverse impact on output growth mainly during the period of economic contraction. Also, for these two countries, it can be argued that higher real uncertainty significantly reduces output growth only in their respective low output growth regimes.

We use a very general bivariate GARCH‐M model and quarterly data for five Asian countries to test for the impact of real and nominal macroeconomic uncertainty on inflation and output growth. We conclude the following. First, in the majority of countries uncertainty regarding the output growth rate is related negatively to the average growth rate. Secondly, contrary to expectations, inflation uncertainty in most cases does not harm the output growth performance of an economy. Thirdly, inflation and output uncertainty have a mixed effect on inflation. Consistent results are found using the VAR‐GARCH‐M approach to investigate the dynamic relationship between inflation and output growth using impulse response functions. This evidence implies that macroeconomic uncertainty may even improve macroeconomic performance, i.e. raise output growth and reduce inflation. Our empirical results highlight important differences with those for industrialized countries.

Editor's evaluation: Resource allocation accounts for the large variability of rate-yield phenotypes across bacterial strains

In this paper we use GARCH-M methods to test four hypotheses about the effects of real and nominal uncertainty on average inflation and output growth in the United States from 1948 to 1996. We find no evidence that higher inflation uncertainty or higher output growth uncertainty raises the average inflation rate. We also find no support for the idea that more risky output growth is associated with a higher average real growth rate. Our key result is that in a variety of models and sample periods, inflation uncertainty significantly lowers real output growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper investigates how inflation and its uncertainty impact GDP growth in eight Central and Eastern European Countries. Inflation uncertainty series are created examining several GARCH models in combination with three different distribution functions, while the nonlinear effect of inflation and its uncertainty on GDP growth is assessed in the Bayesian quantile regression framework. We find that inflation has significantly smaller negative effect on GDP growth than inflation uncertainty, which confirms the Friedman hypothesis. This means that inflation in the selected countries has an indirect impact on GDP growth via inflation uncertainty. We find that countries with smaller economy, such as Latvia and Estonia experience more adverse effect from inflation uncertainty in both upturn and downturn conditions, probably because they are vulnerable to external inflationary shocks. As for the countries with bigger economy, inflation uncertainty shocks diminish GDP growth only in conditions when output growth is very low or negative.

A bivariate Markov regime switching model is employed to verify whether the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty, or the negative effects of inflation and inflation uncertainty on output growth, vary with the level of inflation. Inflation and inflation uncertainty are positively correlated in the high-inflation regime. In contrast, in the low-inflation regime, the direct effect of inflation on output growth is insignificant, but the indirect negative effect on growth via inflation uncertainty is highly significant. The negative influence in a high-inflation regime is 2.664 times greater than that in a low-inflation regime.

Tujuan utama makalah ini adalah untuk mengkaji hubungan dinamik antara inflasi, kemeruapan inflasi dan pertumbuhan output bagi tempoh Januari 1980 hingga Disember 2004. Kemeruapan inflasi dianggarkan dengan menggunakan model varians bersyarat ‘exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity’ (EGARCH) dan perubahan indek pengeluaran perindustrian (IPP) digunakan sebagai proksi kepada pertumbuhan output. Teknik autoregresi vector (VAR) digunakan untuk menguji kewujudan hubungan lead-lagged antara ketiga-tiga pemboleh ubah yang dikaji. Keputusan empirikal menunjukkan wujud hubungan penyebab antara kadar inflasi dan kemeruapan inflasi. Secara amnya, kadar inflasi yang tinggi akan meningkatkan kemeruapan inflasi, selaras dengan hipotesis pertama Friedman. Seterusnya kemeruapan inflasi yang tinggi akan mengurangkan kadar inflasi seperti yang dibahaskan oleh Holland. Tambahan pula, inflasi memberi kesan negatif terhadap pertumbuhan output Malaysia. Walau bagaimanapun tiada hubungan yang wujud antara kemeruapan inflasi dan pertumbuhan output. Keputusan daripada analisis luar sampel menggunakan teknik fungsi tindak balas teritlak (GIRF) dan penghuraian varians (VDC) adalah konsisten dengan keputusan daripada analisis VAR.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the causal relationships between inflation, output growth and their uncertainties in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach– The modeling approach allows for structural breaks to avoid the masking of specific impacts.Findings– Based on the asymmetric Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model, the paper found strong evidence favoring a positive effect of a change in the inflation uncertainty as predicted by the Friedman-Ball hypothesis. In addition, inflation (inflation uncertainty) has direct (indirect) negative effect on the output growth. The results are consistent with the Taylor effect – increases in inflation uncertainty decreases output uncertainty. The analysis also reveals that economic uncertainty lowers the growth rate of output, complying with Bernanke's idea.Originality/value– The present study suggests that extra efforts are required to locate the breaks in the variance in order to draw concrete evidence on link between economic uncertainty and macroeconomic performance.