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The spectre of deflation: a review of empirical evidence

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  • Gregor W. Smith

Abstract

What explains the widespread fear of deflation? This article reviews the history of thought, economic history, and empirical evidence on deflation, with a view to answering this question. It also outlines informally the main effects of deflation in applied monetary models. The main finding is that - for both historical and contemporary deflations - there are many open, empirical questions that could be answered using the tools economists use to study inflation and monetary policy more generally.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Canadian Economics Association in its journal Canadian Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 39 (2006)
Issue (Month): 4 (November)
Pages: 1041-1072

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Handle: RePEc:cje:issued:v:39:y:2006:i:4:p:1041-1072

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. James Yetman, 2009. "Hong Kong Consumer Prices are Flexible," Working Papers 052009, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
  2. Clinton, Kevin & Garcia-Saltos, Roberto & Johnson, Marianne & Kamenik, Ondrej & Laxton, Douglas, 2010. "International deflation risks under alternative macroeconomic policies," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 140-177, June.

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