Price Puzzle Research Articles

A Structural Vector Autoregression Exploration of South Africa’s Monetary and Macroprudential Policy Interactions

Interactions between monetary and macroprudential policy are crucial in safeguarding price and financial stability. This study investigates the macroeconomic and financial impacts of monetary and macroprudential policy interactions in South Africa, a leading African economy in developing macroprudential frameworks. The existing literature largely focuses on the effectiveness of these policies independently, leaving a gap in understanding how their interaction affects their overall efficacy. Employing a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model and utilizing data from 1980 to 2023, this study uniquely incorporates the financial cycle to represent financial developments. The results reveal significant effects of both policies on key variables such as output, the financial cycle, and the price level. Specifically, policy contractions reduce output and the financial cycle but increase the price level, illustrating the ‘price puzzle’. This study further identifies an endogenous response between the two policies: monetary policy reacts by rising to reduce price levels following a macroprudential shock, while macroprudential policy rises to stimulate financial activity after a monetary shock. These findings underscore the importance of using both policies in conjunction but in opposite directions to balance their effects and achieve price and financial stability. This study suggests that an optimal combination of monetary and macroprudential policies is critical for maintaining macroeconomic equilibrium.

The cost-efficiency carbon pricing puzzle

Any global temperature target must be translated into an intertemporal carbon budget and its associated cost-efficient carbon price schedule. Under the Hotelling’s rule without uncertainty, the growth rate of this price should be equal to the interest rate. It is therefore a puzzle that many cost-efficiency IAM models yield carbon prices that increase at an average real growth rate above 7% per year, a very large return for traders of carbon assets. I explore whether uncertainties surrounding the development of green technologies could solve this puzzle. I show that future marginal abatement costs and aggregate consumption are positively correlated. This justifies doing less for climate change than in the safe case, implying a smaller initial carbon price, and an expected growth rate of carbon price that is larger than the interest rate. In the benchmark calibration of my model, I obtain an equilibrium interest rate around 1% and an expected growth rate of carbon price around 3.5%, yielding an optimal carbon price above 200 USD/tCO2 within the next few years. I also show that the rigid carbon budget approach to cost-efficiency carbon pricing implies a large uncertainty surrounding the future carbon prices that support this constraint. I show that green investors should be compensated for this risk by a large risk premium embedded in the growth rate of expected carbon prices, rather than by a collar on carbon prices as often recommended.

Disagreement About the Term Structure of Inflation Expectations

We develop a model of the individual term structure of inflation expectations across forecasting horizons. Using the Survey of Professional Forecasters, we decompose disagreement about inflation expectations into individuals' long-term beliefs, private information, and public information. We find that in normal times, long-horizon disagreement is predominantly driven by individuals' long-term beliefs, while short-horizon disagreement stems from private information. During economic downturns, heterogeneous reactions to public information become a key driver of disagreement at all horizons. When forecasters disagree about public information, monetary policy exhibits a delayed response and a price puzzle emerges, underscoring the importance of anchoring inflation expectations.

Do cultural differences affect the share price puzzle?

We examine the impact of cultural differences on nominal share prices across 63 countries from 2002 to 2018. Using institutional and catering theories, we assess how cultural dimensions—including World Governance Indicators (WGI), legal systems, religious influences, and GLOBE dimensions—affect the spatial heterogeneity of share price levels. Our findings indicate that share prices are higher in countries with common law systems and comprehensive information reporting, as these environments tend to attract institutional investors. Conversely, cultural traits emphasizing altruistic values correspond with lower share prices, reflecting the preferences of individual investors.

Monetary Policy and Income Distribution in a Multisectoral AB-SFC Model

ABSTRACT Restrictive monetary policy can not only fail to achieve the conventional macroeconomic goal of controlling inflation but also be seen as responsible for the increasing income inequality that has occurred in recent decades. This result is not clear, however, if one remains bounded to the traditional monetary policy transmission mechanisms and conventional models. In this article, we create an agent-based, stock-flow consistent, heterodox disequilibrium model to analyse and evaluate the effects of different basic interest rate levels, especially its distributive effects. Using computer simulations, we show that the basic interest rate plays a key role when firms compete in oligopolistic markets and face financial constraints and costs. In such circumstances, increases in the interest rate can be responsible for price increases, creating the price puzzle problem. In addition, it forces redistribution of income in favour of the financial system and pressures the profit rate of industrial firms, which will raise prices and lower the wage share. The final distributive effect of an interest rate policy will ultimately depend on the power of these agents: the bargaining power of the workers to claim higher wages and the market power of the firms to raise prices.

Which Subjective Expectations Explain Asset Prices?

Abstract We present a method for determining whether errors in expectations explain asset pricing puzzles without imposing assumptions about the error mechanism. Using accounting identities and survey forecasts, we find that errors in expected long-term inflation explain price variation, return predictability, and the rejection of the expectations hypothesis for aggregate stock and bond markets. Errors in short-term (long-term) nominal earnings growth expectations explain (do not explain) stock price variation and return predictability. The relevant errors are consistent with mistakes about the persistence of forecasted variables and the response to surprises. A simple framework based on fundamental extrapolation successfully replicates these findings. (JEL G40, G12, G14, E71)

Household heterogeneity and the price puzzle in a new Keynesian model

This paper provides a new insight into the price puzzle using a new Keynesian (NK) model with household heterogeneity. To do this, we adopt a tractable heterogeneous-agent NK (THANK) model that nests the two-agent NK (TANK) and representative-agent NK models. We first demonstrate that when the share of liquidity-constrained (LC) consumers is high, the degree of inflation stabilization in the Taylor rule crucially affects whether the price puzzle occurs in the TANK model. Second, we show that regardless of the share of LC consumers, the price puzzle disappears in the THANK model with a discounted dynamic IS (DIS) curve. In contrast, for a compounded DIS curve, a higher share of LC consumers generates the price puzzle. Finally, we find that even in the case of a compounded DIS curve, reinforced interest rate smoothing can prevent the price puzzle.

Inflation targeting, exchange rate and output gap in Central and Eastern European countries

This paper aims at empirical assessment of monetary policy relationships in Central and Eastern European countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania), which practise the monetary regime of inflation targeting. Using quarterly data for the period of 2004-2019, the authors examined the relationship between the output gap, nominal and real exchange rate misalignment, consumer price inflation and the central bank policy rate, using the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model. According to estimates, the central banks of the CEE-4 countries react with an increase of their policy rate to the output gap and inflation, as implied by the Taylor rule. At the same time, a monetary reaction to nominal (real) exchange rate misalignment is lost in the estimates for the post-crisis period of 2010-2019. An increase of the central bank rates does not seem to have unfavourable output effects, while the nominal exchange rate is likely to depreciate with three to five quarter lags. However, there is evidence of the price puzzle when monetary tightening is followed by a counterintuitive increase in the inflation rate. In full accordance with the New Keynesian framework, inflation depends on the output gap, while being expansionary in the real sector. Evidence of the exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) to inflation is mixed. This article provides insights into the average monetary policy reaction function and its macroeconomic effects in the CEE-4 countries, with the value added in that following the Taylor rule does not guarantee effectiveness in tackling inflation in the presence of the price puzzle. Based on the estimated exchange rate effects on the output gap and inflation, deliberate currency appreciation resulting from the central bank foreign exchange interventions and/or fiscal austerity measures can be helpful for such a disinflation that minimises output losses.

Testing omitted variables in VARs

A procedure is outlined aiming at testing the bias due to omitted variables in vector autoregressions. The procedure consists first of filtering a vector of omitted variables and then testing the bias. The test does not rely on the availability of the omitted variables, and is based on a comparison between maximum-likelihood with Kalman filter vector autoregression and linear vector autoregression estimates. The empirical part considers two illustrative examples: a univariate regression analysis, based on the rational expectation-augmented Phillips curve; and a VAR with output, inflation and interest rates where a “price puzzle” arises.

Effectiveness and conduct of macroprudential policy in Indonesia in 2003–2020: Evidence from the structural VAR models

The paper examines the effectiveness of macroprudential policy in Indonesia and policy reactions to economic developments. Using the structural vector autoregression and data on the regulatory LTV ratio, we investigate the policy effectiveness in controlling credit growth and real property prices along with the effects on economic activity. We find that the LTV-based policy in Indonesia is effective in taming credit growth in the medium run. It, however, is not the case with real property prices whose response to policy changes is counterintuitive and resembles the price puzzle found in the studies on monetary policy. Moreover, our results lend moderate support to the effect of LTV policy on economic activity, especially in the non-COVID-19 sample. We also show that the LTV policy in Indonesia is conducted in an active and circumspective way. In a series of robustness checks, we demonstrate that the results hold when the ordering of variables is changed, alternative proxies for macroprudential policy, output gap, and financial conditions are employed, or the sample is limited to the non-COVID-19 period.

Monetary policy and economic fluctuations

Abstract We assess the responses of output and inflation to monetary policy shocks in the context of a Bayesian, monetary structural vector autoregressive model. We allow money supply and leverage measures to enter into the interest rate policy rule and use an identification approach that is by construction devoid of any price puzzles. We provide a comprehensive comparison between monetary policy shocks under a policy regime that follows a standard Taylor rule and those that augment the standard reaction function of the central bank with measures of leverage and the money supply. We find that contractionary monetary policy is more pronounced and persistent when the reaction function of the central bank is augmented with measures of money and leverage than when the reaction function follows a typical Taylor rule. Our results support the use and inclusion of monetary aggregates in monetary policy and business cycle analysis.

A tale of three prices: Monetary policy and autonomous consumption in the US

This paper empirically assesses the role of monetary policy, real estate prices, housing rent, and consumer prices in the determination of autonomous consumption and output. To do this, six different Structural VAR models are estimated on US quarterly data for the period 1970-2020. The estimations suggest that: i. houses’ own interest rate (which reflects the actual cost of buying a house) produces more persistent and statistically significant effects on autonomous consumption and on output than the real interest rate; ii. monetary policy transmission works through autonomous consumption, in particular via changes in housing prices; iii. autonomous consumption shocks trigger persistent and long-lasting effects on the output level. Last, when analysing separately the three price indexes considered, it is possible to observe the emergence of a price puzzle.

Oil prices in the real economy

SummaryThis paper presents a macro‐finance model of the US economy and the spot and futures markets for oil. The performance of the model is greatly enhanced by using the Kalman filter to model latent variables representing the inflation asymptote, the real price of oil and the slope of the futures curve. We find that these are dominated by innovations in observed futures prices, reflecting the importance of market expectations. Using the Kalman filter to capture inflationary shocks helps solve the notorious price puzzle, the tendency for increases in interest rates to anticipate such developments and apparently cause inflation. Futures prices also depend upon risk premiums, which we find are dominated by the latent variable representing the real oil price rather than macro variables like inflation and interest rates.

Extrapolative asset pricing

This paper studies implications of return extrapolation in a consumption-based asset pricing model. We show that return extrapolation has strong implications for the pricing kernel. The time variation in the agent's return expectations is mainly reflected in the short rate and little in return volatility and equity premium. Return extrapolation causes return volatility and equity premium to be lower than the rational counterparts. In addition to the risk premium, the equity premium can include a sentiment premium that is due to dividend expectation bias rather than return extrapolation bias. Thus, time-varying dividend (rather than return) expectation bias helps produce a volatile equity premium. These results show that return extrapolation exacerbates asset pricing puzzles and fundamental extrapolation helps resolve puzzles.

Audit pricing puzzle: Do audit firm industry specialization and audit report lag matter?

This study examines whether audit firm industry specialization and audit report time lag (ARL) matter in the audit fees puzzle. Specifically, we examine the moderating effect of audit time lag on the audit firm industry specialization and audit fees nexus. We use dataset from 100 quoted and unquoted Ghanaian firms from 2008 to 2018. We find that audit firm industry specialization exhibits a significant positive impact on audit fees and a significant negative effect on ARL. The results of the interaction between audit firm industry specialization and ARL also display a negative association with audit fee, signifying that specialization significantly reduces audit fee premium paid provided these experts produce the financial report in a short time. Further analysis on large and small companies, state-owned and private companies, weak and strong internal controls also indicate the significance of audit firm industry specialization and reporting time lag in explaining audit pricing puzzle. The novelty aspect of this study is the analysis of the moderation effect of audit timeliness on the audit firm industry specialization and audit fees nexus in the context of a lax enforcement of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles environment.

Deliberate underpricing and after-market mispricing in Indian IPO market: Stochastic frontier approach

Purpose This paper aims to study the underpricing phenomenon of initial public offerings (IPOs) of 355 Indian companies issued from 2007 to 2019. The research question this paper empirically examines is whether Indian corporate executives deliberately underprice IPOs from its fair value to attract investors, thereby causing an abnormal spike in the prices on the listing day. The findings of this study challenge a commonly held notion of leaving money on the table by IPO issuing companies. Of the overall average listing day returns of 17%, the deliberate premarket underpricing component is found to be mere 5.3%, while the remaining price fluctuation is, inter alia, a result of market momentum along with the unmet demands of impatient investors. Design/methodology/approach Following Koop and Li (2001), this study uses Stochastic frontier model (SFM) to study a routine anomaly of disparity between the primary market price (i.e. IPO issue price) and the secondary market price (listing price). The jump in the issue price observed on a listing day is decomposed into deliberate premarket underpricing component that reflects the extent of managerial manipulation and the after-market misvaluation component attributable to information asymmetry and prevailing market volatility. Findings This paper uses SFM to bifurcate initial returns into deliberate underpricing by managers and after-market mispricing by noise traders. This study finds that a significant part of the initial return is explained through after-market mispricing. This study finds that average initial returns are 17%, deliberate premarket underpricing is 5.3% and after-market mispricing averages 11.9%. Research limitations/implications This study can isolate underpricing done at the premarket by estimating a systematic one-sided error term that measures the maximum predicted issue price deviation from the offered price. Consequentially, the disaggregation of initial returns may be especially informative for retail investors in planning their exit strategy from an IPO by separating the strength of the firm's fundamentals and its causal relationship with the initial returns. Substantial proportion of after-market mispricing implies that future research should focus on factors causing after-market mispricing. As underlying causes are identified, tailor-made policy responses can be formulated to benefit investors. Practical implications This paper has empirically validated that initial return is a mix of both components, i.e. deliberate underpricing and aftermarket mispricing. This disaggregation of initial returns can prove helpful for investors in planning their exit strategy. This study can help investors to become more aware of the importance of the fundamentals of the firm and its causal relation with the initial returns. This information in turn can help reduce the information asymmetry amongst investors and help them lessen the costs of adverse selection. Originality/value A large number of research studies on IPO pricing find overwhelming evidence of underpricing in public issues. This research attempts to decompose the extent of underpricing into deliberate underpricing and after-market mispricing, thereby supplementing the existing literature on the IPO pricing puzzle. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first contribution to the literature on initial return decomposition for the Indian capital markets.

Innovation-Driven Contractions: A Key to Unravel Asset Pricing Puzzles

Innovation-Driven Contractions: A Key to Unravel Asset Pricing Puzzles

Reverse Repurchase Rate on Selected Monetary Policy Indicators: A Vector Autoregression

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the reverse repurchase (RRP) rate as the main monetary policy instrument of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in affecting selected monetary policy indicators, particularly output gap, inflation, and nominal exchange rate, through a modified New Keynesian monetary policy model using vector autoregression (VAR). The results showed that changes in the RRP rate affects output gap, inflation, and nominal exchange rate, albeit not statistically significant. In addition, the “price puzzle” was seen in the results. This pertains to an increase in inflation after monetary policy contraction which is in contrast with the standard monetary policy theory.

Identifying monetary policy shocks using the central bank’s information set

We identify monetary policy shocks by exploiting variation in the central bank’s information set. To be specific, we use differences between nowcasts of the output gap and inflation with final, revised estimates of these series to isolate movements in the policy rate unrelated to economic conditions. We then compute the effects of a monetary policy shock on the aggregate economy using local projection methods. We find that a contractionary monetary policy shock has a limited negative effect on output but a persistent negative impact on prices. In contrast to alternative identification approaches, we do not observe a price puzzle when analyzing the period from 1987 to 2008. Further, we validate the identification approach in a simple New Keynesian model, augmented by the assumption that the central bank observes the ingredients of the Taylor rule with error.

Consumption with earnings, liquidity, and market based models

The market, earnings, and liquidity growth combine to form a proxy for wealth growth, allowing a recursive consumption model with a low risk aversion coefficient, a risk-free rate close to historical, a high equity premium, and a reasonable elasticity of intertemporal substitution. The empirical consumption model does well against major asset pricing puzzles. Tested over 118 years it is not rejected while a forward-looking consumption model using the market alone as a wealth proxy fails. Changing liquidity and earnings forecast consumption and their ‘crashes’ precede consumption declines. We also demonstrate related stock level factors have similar economic magnitude and are significant. These models are consistent to the financial intermediary economic growth literature. Such consistency across approaches adds credence to common earnings and liquidity factors as important risks to investors.