Effects Of Inflation Targeting Research Articles

Inflation targeting and firm performance in developing countries

Using a panel of 31,027 firms in 47 developing countries over the period 2006-2020, this paper looks at the effects of inflation targeting on firm performance. Estimations performed using entropy balancing to address endogeneity in policy adoption reveal that inflation targeting significantly increases firm performance, mainly measured by sales growth and productivity growth. This effect is robust to a wide range of tests (including alternative models, measures, and samples), and may vary under different macroeconomic and firms' structural characteristics. Lastly, by looking at possible transmission channels, we reveal that these favorable effects seem related with the capacity of the inflation targeting framework to reduce macroeconomic instability.

Inflation, Informational Environment and Expectations of Households

The background information that forms the expectations of economic entities is a significant factor that determines their behavior.The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the relationship of inflation, perception and expectation of inflation by households with the parameters of the information (news’) background on the example of the Russian Federation.The materials for processing as a Russian information background were news’ reports issued by leading Russian TV channels and duplicated on the relevant sites, as well as Internet search (the number of news and search queries, the length of the headlines of the text versions of news, the frequency of mentioning certain topics in them, the tonality of texts), GoogleTrends data on internetrequests. The tonality of the texts was evaluated using automatic analyzers EurikaEngine and Repustate. Data from the reports of the Public Opinion Fund for the Central Bank of the Russian Federation posted on its website are also used; these reports contain monthly data on actual inflation (consumer price index) for 12 months and the results of respondents’ surveys on the perception of inflation, inflation expectations, consumer sentiment, assessments of economic and personal prospects, changes in behavior (starting a job search, making large purchases, etc.) and a wide range of other characteristics of public sentiment related to inflation. To process the collected data, correlation and regression analysis was used, as well as specific methods: Granger causality, principal component methods and lasso regression. As a result of the analysis, statistically significant correlations are found, which may be associated with individual reactions to the topics covered, expressed in changes in mood and behavior.Thus, inflation is negatively correlated with the number of political news on the “Russia” channel and with the length of headlines of text versions of political news of the “Pervy” channel, and positively correlated with web-search queries on the topic “Inflation”. Including these variables in a regression that estimates inflation based on lagged values significantly improves the quality of the regression, although their impact is small in terms of absolute values. We analyze how these relations change after the shift in the exchange rate regime and the introduction of inflation targeting. We find that in the period preceding to the shift, web-search demonstrated statistical significance in the equations we evaluate, and political news did not, while in the subsequent period, the opposite was true. We observe a connection between the parameters under consideration with certain aspects of individual behavior, such as the search for a better-paid job, or doing business. Finally, we find imperfections in the information activity of the Central Bank: an increase in the frequency of its mention in the news reduces people’s confidence that the inflation target can be achieved.In conclusion, the authors come to the following fundamental conclusions: the parameters of the information environment may be suitable for operational estimates of inflation, the effect of inflation targeting (i.e. greater controllability of inflationary processes by Central Bank) increases the importance of political news in decisions made by individuals, information policy and the overall image of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation requires improvement.

Does Inflation Influence Fiscal Policies? Effects of Inflation Targeting on Public Expenditure in the Euro Area

Does Inflation Influence Fiscal Policies? Effects of Inflation Targeting on Public Expenditure in the Euro Area

Inflation targeting and financial crisis

ABSTRACT We study the average treatment effect of inflation targeting on the likelihood of financial crisis with a large panel of countries over 1980–2017. To address the self-selection problem of inflation targeting, we adopt propensity score matching. Various matching estimators show consistent evidence that inflation targeting has significantly reduced the probability of a financial crisis. When decomposing financial crisis into various types, the effects are pronounced for the banking crisis, inflation crisis, external debt crisis, and stock crash. Our results are largely unaltered to a battery of robustness checks when controlling for legal origins, governance quality, financial development, capital account openness, fiscal balance, debt-to-GDP ratio, financial regulations, and central bank independence. This paper suggests that price-stability-oriented monetary policy frameworks, such as inflation targeting, also have non-negligible ‘side effects’ on financial stability.

UKRAINE’S MONETARY POLICY EFFECTIVENESS UNDER WAR

Introduction. Notwithstanding the Ukrainian banking system's resilience under war, there are devaluation and inflation pressures. In turn, monetary policy is found to be vital to combat drastic GDP decline and FX reserve depletion. Materials and methods. In an attempt to examine the effectiveness of the NBU's (National bank of Ukraine) monetary policy, the article employs comparative and statistical analysis of its instruments based on data regarding dynamics of key and other interest rates (deposits, loans, certificate of deposits, refinancing, DGBs), volumes of foreign exchange interventions and international reserves, DGBs. Results and discussion. This paper summarises the fundamental changes in monetary policy since the beginning of the full-scale war. The findings demonstrate a shift from the policy priority of inflation targeting and a freely floating exchange rate in favour of monetary financing of the budget deficit. At the same time, the devaluation of the national currency is restrained mainly at the expense of international credit and grant funds, which makes it possible to cover the losses of the NBU's FX reserves to support the exchange rate and carry out additional money issuance. The results show that under the war, the NBU's monetary policy is effective in limiting devaluation processes due to the timely introduction of a fixed exchange rate, strengthening of currency restrictions and their further adjustment. However, due to the increase in the discount rate and the corresponding increase in interest rates on certificates of deposit and refinancing and a slight increase in deposits, DGBs did not restrain inflation due to the lack of alternative monetary financing of the budget deficit. Further focus exclusively on the inflation targeting regime does not meet the current tasks of monetary policy and thereby reduces its effectiveness. The current budget dependence on monetary financing requires optimising monetary expansion measures in order to flow the issuing money from the military to the consumer market. Conclusions. The effectiveness of inflation targeting with limited monetary policy transmission indicates that the NBU should focus on other goals equally crucial to maintaining price stability, such as limiting exchange rate fluctuations and monetary financing for economic growth. In post-war recovery, the monetary policy direction solely on inflation targeting will remain inappropriate, given the mainly non-monetary factors of inflation.

Inflation targeting and expectation anchoring: Evidence from developed and emerging market economies

Inflation expectations can be inferred from treasury yields data. Previous studies utilizing such data have found evidence for the role of inflation targeting in anchoring inflation expectations in a number of developed market economies. The goal of this paper is to extend the evidence for emerging market economies. We estimate inflation expectations from nominal treasury yields data and infer the anchoring of inflation expectations from the sensitivity of inflation expectations to current inflation rates. Our analysis shows that the effect of inflation targeting is statistically significant in emerging market economies as well as in developed market economies and that the magnitude is marginally greater in the former. Our results are robust to alternative specifications.

Macroeconomic effects of inflation targeting in emerging market economies

This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of inflation targeting in 44 emerging market economies (EMEs) during 1970–2017. We estimate a dynamic panel data model, taking into account the endogeneity of the inflation targeting regime and controlling for a variety of factors affecting macroeconomic performance in EMEs. The main findings from our empirical investigation are as follows: First, inflation targeting is associated with lower average inflation, though its favorable effects, as compared to alternative monetary strategies, are negligible; second, we provide firm evidence against the proposition that inflation targeting lowers inflation volatility. Our results are robust with respect to various modifications in the estimation procedure and to the inclusion of additional control variables.

A Factor Model Analysis of the Australian Economy and the Effects of Inflation Targeting

Based on a dynamic factor model for a data set with more than 100 variables, we find that macroeconomic fluctuations in Australia can be largely captured by just two common factors. However, the factor structure changed soon after the introduction of inflation targeting in the 1990s, resulting in a large reduction in cross‐sectional variation related to these common factors. Estimates from a block‐exogenous factor‐augmented vector autoregressive model suggest that the transmission and responsiveness of monetary policy also changed, with policy both more effective and responsive to the potential inflationary impacts of shocks following the introduction of inflation targeting.

A simple model of some possible long-run adverse effects of inflation targeting

ABSTRACT In Latin America, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, have been using Inflation Targeting for at least two decades, and although there were significant improvements in social indicators, macroeconomic results have been mixed. In particular, the real exchange rate has been much more volatile and growth was significantly slower in Brazil and Mexico. In accordance with these facts, we sketch a simple New Consensus open economy model with hysteresis and we show that a policy that targets inflation disregarding the effects on the real exchange rate may have negative long-run effects.

Inflation targeting and bank risk: The interacting effect of institutional quality

This paper investigates whether institutional quality determines the effect of inflation targeting (IT) on the banking risk of Islamic versus conventional banks, using an unbalanced panel data over...

Macroeconomic effects of inflation targeting in advanced and emerging market economies

The article assessed the treatment effects of targeting inflation regime on the real output and consumer inflation persistence in both advanced and emerging market economies. An empirical analysis is based on data from 35 OECD and 40 emerging countries and covers inflation and non-inflation targets over the period 1990–2017. The results showed that inflation targeting (henceforth – IT) had no significant impact on the GDP per capita growth rate but slightly reduced the output volatility. This study founded out that full-fledged IT had the effect of slowing down consumer inflation and reducing its volatility. Moreover, in the OECD countries, the monetary framework had certain advantages during the Great Recession. The authors argued that in order to maintain price stability in emerging economies, a high level of central bank independence and accountability is required.

Regional effects of inflation targeting in Russia: Factors of heterogeneity and structural inflation rates

Inflation targeting in Russia implies maintaining stable low inflation at a level of 4% throughout the country. The presence of structural factors in some regions can determine deviations from the all-Russian inflation, which can lead to different effects of monetary policy in Russian regions. In this paper, we analyze regional heterogeneity of inflation and factors of inflation deviations from the national average, estimate structural levels of inflation in the regions of Russian Federation. These estimates confirm the presence of some regional factors of inflation deviations from the all-Russian indicator, such as the difference in productivity growth of the tradable and non-tradable sectors (Balassa—Samuelson effect), effective exchange rates, real incomes and product stocks. In addition, our results confirm the presence of regions with price growth rate above and below monetary policy target. The results of this research can be used for the development of monetary and communication policies.

Inflation Targeting in Iran

Inflation targeting in various forms has been adopted by a number of countries as a framework for making monetary policy more coherent and transparent and for increasing the credibility of monetary policy. Despite the language, referring to inflation target as the primary objective of monetary policy, central bankers always make room for short-run stabilization objectives, particularly with respect to output and exchange rate. Inflation targeting, in most cases, reduces the role of intermediate targets, such as exchange rate or money growth rate.
 Experience of other countries that have adopted inflation targeting as a monetary framework reveals that the success of the policy depends on not only the transparency of the operation but also on the budgetary discipline. Indeed, the central banks that have become more transparent, more independent, more coherent, and more accountable and more credible have been more successful.
 The controversy among economists on the expenses of inflation targeting has attained particular attention during the past decades .While opponents believe that inflation targeting takes place at the expense of output shortfalls (Cechetti and Ehrmann 1999), proponents (Mishkin 2000, Jonas and Mishkin 2003) believe that inflation targeting promotes investment and economic growth. This paper tries to address the question of whether the performance of inflation targeting in Iran has been successful. Based on a monetary model, using exogenous variables such as official exchange rate, budget deficit, foreign exchange obligation account, and balance of payments, the results suggest that the effects of inflation targeting on the real output is trivial, supporting the natural rate hypothesis.

The impact of financial development on the effectiveness of inflation targeting in developing economies

An ever-increasing number of developing economies with varied levels of financial development have adopted Inflation Targeting (IT) frameworks to guide monetary policy. Using a panel dataset of 54 developing economies over the period 1980 to 2015 (30 of which have IT frameworks), we re-visit the rather controversial issue of whether adoption of an IT framework leads to superior outcomes in terms of reducing inflation and its variability. After controlling for potential endogeneity and self-selection concerns of policy adoption, our main empirical finding is that IT frameworks appear to reduce inflation rates in developing economies regardless of the level of financial development, while it reduces variability of inflation rates only when we control for levels of financial market development. We further find that the effectiveness of IT framework on inflation is highly dependent on financial inclusion and bank characteristics, while the effect on inflation variability is more associated with components of capital market development.

The Effect of Inflation Targeting on Foreign Direct Investment Flows to Developing Countries

Due to the many benefits that come with foreign direct investment (FDI), such as greater economic growth and technology spillovers, developing countries strive to attract this type of investment. Although the amount of FDI in developing countries has increased greatly over the past several years, not all developing countries have been successful at attracting it. A credible monetary policy, such as inflation targeting (IT), might make countries that implement it more attractive destinations for FDI flows due to the reliable macroeconomic environment created. This paper estimates the effect of IT on FDI flows to developing countries using a difference-in-differences approach and panel data for 71 countries for the period 1985 to 2013. This paper also looks at the difference between targeting and non-targeting countries in terms of FDI inflows during times of high instability. The results indicate that the adoption of IT leads to increased FDI flows to developing countries overall and, most importantly, during times of distress.

Inflation Targeting and Inflation Risk in Latin America

ABSTRACT We analyzed the effects of inflation targeting (IT) implementation and functioning through the reaction function of monetary authorities from Latin American (LA) inflation targeters (ITers), e.g. Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. We adapted the Value-at-Risk (VaR) and CoVaR to the Inflation-at-Risk ( ) and Co-Inflation-at-Risk ( ), respectively, to estimate the inflation at the extremes of its probability density functions. The results suggested that the IT was able to reduce inflation risk for all ITers. Chile and Peru are further ahead in terms of inflationary control, whereas in Brazil, it is more difficult. We propose the IaR and CoIaR as additional risk-management tools.

Is inflation targeting useful for economic growth?

The paper presents an overview of studies of the effects of inflation targeting on long-term economic growth. We analyze the potential channels of influence, as well as modern empirical studies that test performance of these channels. We compare the effects of different variants of inflation targeting (strict and mixed). Based on the analysis recommendations on the choice of optimal (in terms of stimulating long-term growth) regime of monetary policy in developed and developing economies are formulated.

Effect of credibility and reputation on discretionary fiscal policy: empirical evidence from Colombia

This paper relates to the literature on the possible effect of inflation targeting on fiscal discipline in developing countries. In particular, we present empirical evidence to address this issue based on the Colombian experience. This study relies on two main issues. The first is to verify whether the adoption of inflation targeting in Colombia affected the discretionary fiscal component in the period 2004–2014. The second issue is to analyze whether the monetary credibility amplified the effect of the monetary policy on changes in the discretionary fiscal component. The results denote that inflation targeting causes an impact on fiscal policy in Colombia. In particular, the greater monetary credibility the less change in discretionary fiscal component is observed.

The effects of inflation targeting on Okun’s law

ABSTRACTThis article provides the first empirical evidence that the adoption of inflation targeting (IT) matters for the extent of tradeoff between unemployment and output, that is Okun’s law. Our full sample results indicate that IT leads to a more negative Okun’s coefficient, suggesting that, for a given reduction of output, the introduction of IT is associated with a higher unemployment rate. Subsample analyses reveal that the whole sample results are mainly driven by the industrial subsample outcomes, not the developing counterparts. Our findings point out that IT not only influences macroeconomic variables per se but also affects the relationship between/among macroeconomic variables.

Financial structure, financial instability, and inflation targeting

Minsky, the first to propose the financial instability hypothesis, stressed the importance of the lender-of-last-resort for preventing financial instability. Overall, however, most of the research on financial instability has focused little on measures to prevent instability. Japan was trapped in a prolonged recession after the collapse of the bubble economy. The government promoted market-oriented economic reforms to cope. The recent international monetary crisis, triggered by the subprime loan crisis of 2007 in the US, cast a dark shadow over the world economy. Some developed nations, most notably New Zealand have been successful in implementing inflation-targeting policies. The Bank of Japan and the US Federal Reserve have adopted the inflation-targeting measures after the crisis. The main purpose of this paper is to examine financial instability, financial cycles, and the effects of inflation targeting in a mixed competitive–oligopolistic system. The results of this paper demonstrate that inflation targeting stabilizes an economy in both competitive and oligopolistic systems.