A new theory of price determination suggests that if primary surpluses are independent of the level of debt, the price level has to ‘jump’ to assure fiscal solvency. In this regime (which we call fiscal dominant), monetary policy has to work through seignorage to control the price level. If, on the other hand, primary surpluses are expected to respond to the level of debt in a way that assures fiscal solvency (a regime we call money dominant), then the price level is determined in more conventional ways. This paper develops testable restrictions that differentiate between the two regimes. Using post-war data, the paper presents what we think is overwhelming evidence that the United States is in a money dominant regime; even the post-Reagan data (1980–95) seem to support that contention.
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Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
1772.
Find related papers by JEL classification: E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
John H. Cochrane, 1999.
"A Frictionless View of U.S. Inflation,"
NBER Chapters,
in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1998, volume 13, pages 323-421
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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