Search Results
Journal Article
The consumer price index as a measure of inflation
An estimation of a price index that is immune to some of the weighting biases that can hinder the use of the Consumer Price Index as a reliable measure of inflation.
Journal Article
Legal structure, financial structure, and the monetary policy transmission mechanism
Among the many challenges facing the new Eurosystem - the European Central Bank and the central banks of the eleven members of the European Monetary Union - is the possibility that participating countries will respond differently to interest rate changes. This paper provides evidence that differences in financial structure are the proximate cause for these national asymmetries in monetary policy transmission and that these differences in financial structure are a result of differences in legal structure. The author concludes that unless legal structures are harmonized across Europe, the ...
Conference Paper
Distinguishing theories of the monetary transmission mechanism.
Journal Article
Policy rules and targets: framing the central banker's problem
The author presents an analytical framework for the formulation of a central bank policy rule and examines some conceptual issues relating to the current debate over the effectiveness of such rules. In discussing the move by many central banks to adopt a price-level or inflation rate target--the basis for one type of rule--he suggests that central banks are implicitly changing the relative importance they attach to the goals of price and output stability. Using 1984-95 data, he shows that an effort to decrease inflation variability modestly could cause output to deviate significantly from its ...
Journal Article
The seasonality of consumer prices
A reevaluation of the evidence of seasonality in prices, finding that seasonal price movements have become more prominent in the relatively stable inflation environment that has prevailed since 1982, and that the amount of seasonality differs greatly by item, making it difficult to generalize about seasonal price movements.
Working Paper
Interactions between the seasonal and business cycles in production and inventories
This paper shows that in several U.S. manufacturing industries, the seasonal variability of production and inventories varies with the state of the business cycle. We present a simple model which implies that if firms reduce the seasonal variability of their production as the economy strengthens, and they either hold constant or increase the stock of inventories they bring into the high-production seasons of the year, then they must face upward-sloping and convex marginal production cost curves. We conclude that firms in a number of industries face upward-sloping and convex ...
Journal Article
Central bank tools and liquidity shortages
Bank for International Settlements researchers Stephen Cecchetti and Piti Disyatat consider the implications of recent financial developments for the ?lender-of-last-resort? function of central banks and whether traditional policymaking tools remain effective in the face of modern liquidity crises. Presented at "Central Bank Liquidity Tools and Perspectives on Regulatory Reform" a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, February 19-20, 2009.
Working Paper
Imperfect information and staggered price setting