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The Price Puzzle: Fact or Artifact?

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Author Info
Efrem Castelnuovo () (University of Padua)
Paolo Surico () (University of Bari and Bank of England)

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Abstract

This paper re-examines the empirical evidence on the price puzzle and proposes a new theoretical interpretation. Using structural VARs and two different identification strategies based on zero restrictions and sign restrictions, we find that the positive response of price to a monetary policy shock is historically limited to the sub-samples associated with a weak central bank response to inflation. These sub-samples correspond to the pre-Volcker period for the US and the pre-inflation targeting regime for the UK. Using a micro-founded New Keynesian monetary policy model for the US economy, we then show that the structural VARs are capable of reproducing the price puzzle on artificial data only when monetary policy is passive and hence multiple equilibria arise. In contrast, this model never generates on impact a positive inflation response to a policy shock. The omission in the VARs of a variable capturing the high persistence of expected inflation under indeterminacy is found to account for the price puzzle observed on actual data.

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Paper provided by Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno" in its series "Marco Fanno" Working Papers with number 0016.

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Length: 38 pages
Date of creation: May 2006
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Handle: RePEc:pad:wpaper:0016

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Domenico Giannone & Michele Lenza & Lucrezia Reichlin, 2008. "Explaining the Great Moderation - it is not the shocks," Working Paper Series 865, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Riccardo DiCecio & Edward Nelson, 2007. "An estimated DSGE model for the United Kingdom," Working Papers 2007-006, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Giovanni Di Bartolomeo & Lorenza Rossi & Massimiliano Tancioni, 2007. "Monetary Policy under Rule-of-Thumb Consumers and External Habits," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2006 1, Money Macro and Finance Research Group. [Downloadable!]
  4. Thomas A. Lubik & Paolo Surico, 2006. "The Lucas critique and the stability of empirical models," Working Paper 06-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. [Downloadable!]
  5. Dibartolomeo, Giovanni & Rossi, Lorenza & Tancioni, Massimiliano, 2004. "Monetary Policy under Rule-of-Thumb Consumers and External Habits: An International Empirical Comparison," MPRA Paper 1094, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2006. [Downloadable!]
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