IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedkrw/99-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Implications of rounding and rebasing for empirical analysis using consumer price inflation

Author

Listed:
  • Barak Hoffman
  • Sharon Kozicki

Abstract

Monthly CPI inflation rates can be spuriously choppy when constructed using the official CPI, rebased with 1982-84=100. The problem can be traced to rounding that occurs when only one digit after the decimal place is reported in rebased CPI data. This paper compares three CPI measures to illustrate how rounding and rebasing introduce distortions that affect variance properties, alter lag specification in autoregressive models, and \"flip\" results of unit root tests. To reduce distortions, the paper recommends using either original release data or the CPI rebased with 1967=100.

Suggested Citation

  • Barak Hoffman & Sharon Kozicki, 1999. "Implications of rounding and rebasing for empirical analysis using consumer price inflation," Research Working Paper 99-08, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedkrw:99-08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.kansascityfed.org/documents/5269/pdf-rwp99-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. Steven Holland, 1984. "Does higher inflation lead to more uncertain inflation?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 66(Feb), pages 15-26.
    2. Arthur M. Okun, 1971. "The Mirage of Steady Inflation," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 2(2), pages 485-498.
    3. Kim, Chang-Jin, 1993. "Unobserved-Component Time Series Models with Markov-Switching Heteroscedasticity: Changes in Regime and the Link between Inflation Rates and Inflation Uncertainty," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 11(3), pages 341-349, July.
    4. Brunner, Allan D & Hess, Gregory D, 1993. "Are Higher Levels of Inflation Less Predictable? A State-Dependent Conditional Heteroscedasticity Approach," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 11(2), pages 187-197, April.
    5. Breusch, T S & Pagan, A R, 1979. "A Simple Test for Heteroscedasticity and Random Coefficient Variation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1287-1294, September.
    6. Katsimbris, George M, 1985. "The Relationship between the Inflation Rate, Its Variability, and Output Growth Variability: Disaggregated International Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 179-188, May.
    7. Laurence Ball & Stephen G. Cecchetti, 1990. "Inflation and Uncertainty at Long and Short Horizons," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 21(1), pages 215-254.
    8. King, Robert G. & Watson, Mark W., 1994. "The post-war U.S. phillips curve: a revisionist econometric history," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 157-219, December.
    9. Nelson, Charles R. & Plosser, Charles I., 1982. "Trends and random walks in macroeconmic time series : Some evidence and implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 139-162.
    10. Evans, Martin & Wachtel, Paul, 1993. "Inflation Regimes and the," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(3), pages 475-511, August.
    11. Froyen, Richard T & Waud, Roger N, 1987. "An Examination of Aggregate Price Uncertainty in Four Countries and Some Implications for Real Output," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(2), pages 353-372, June.
    12. Evans, Martin, 1991. "Discovering the Link between Inflation Rates and Inflation Uncertainty," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(2), pages 169-184, May.
    13. Taylor, John B., 1981. "On the relation between the variability of inflation and the average inflation rate," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 57-85, January.
    14. Sims, Christopher A, 1980. "Macroeconomics and Reality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 1-48, January.
    15. Davis, George & Kanago, Bryce, 1998. "High and Uncertain Inflation: Results from a New Data Set," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 30(2), pages 218-230, May.
    16. Friedman, Milton, 1977. "Nobel Lecture: Inflation and Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 451-472, June.
    17. Martin Evans & Paul Wachtel, 1993. "Inflation regimes and the sources of inflation uncertainty," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 475-520.
    18. John E. Golob, 1994. "Does inflation uncertainty increase with inflation?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 79(Q III), pages 27-38.
    19. Koenker, Roger, 1981. "A note on studentizing a test for heteroscedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 107-112, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allan Crawford & Marcel Kasumovich, 1996. "Does Inflation Uncertainty Vary with the Level of Inflation?," Staff Working Papers 96-09, Bank of Canada.
    2. Tsyplakov, Alexander, 2010. "The links between inflation and inflation uncertainty at the longer horizon," MPRA Paper 26908, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Tsyplakov Alexander, 2010. "The links between inflation and inflation uncertainty at the longer horizon," EERC Working Paper Series 10/09e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    4. Broto Carmen & Ruiz Esther, 2009. "Testing for Conditional Heteroscedasticity in the Components of Inflation," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-30, May.
    5. Davis, George K & Kanago, Bryce E, 2000. "The Level and Uncertainty of Inflation: Results from OECD Forecasts," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 58-72, January.
    6. Berument, Hakan & Yalcin, Yeliz & Yildirim, Julide, 2009. "The effect of inflation uncertainty on inflation: Stochastic volatility in mean model within a dynamic framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1201-1207, November.
    7. Sintim-Aboagye, Hermann, 2013. "Imf And World Bank Economic Programs On Inflation: Relevance To Nepad," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 9(1-2), January.
    8. Ran TAO & Zheng-Zheng LI & Xiao-Lin LI & Chi-Wei SU, 2018. "A Reexamination of Friedman-Ball’s Hypothesis in Slovakia - Evidence from Wavelet Analysis," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 41-54, December.
    9. Broto, Carmen & Ruiz, Esther, 2006. "Unobserved component models with asymmetric conditional variances," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(9), pages 2146-2166, May.
    10. da Silva Filho, Tito Nícias Teixeira, 2005. "Is there too much certainty when measuring uncertainty," MPRA Paper 16383, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Kushal Banik Chowdhury & Nityananda Sarkar, 2019. "Regime Dependent Effect Of Output Growth On Output Growth Uncertainty: Evidence From Oecd Countries," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 257-282, July.
    12. Tsyplakov Alexander, 2001. "Does Lower Inflation Imply Lower Price Uncertainty?," EERC Working Paper Series 2k/06e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    13. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Kontonikas, Alexandros, 2009. "The Euro and inflation uncertainty in the European Monetary Union," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 954-971, October.
    14. Grier, Kevin B. & Perry, Mark J., 1998. "On inflation and inflation uncertainty in the G7 countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 671-689, August.
    15. TF. Nas & MJ. Perry, 2000. "Inflation, inflation uncertainty, and monetary policy in Turkey: 1960–1998," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(2), pages 170-180, April.
    16. Kajal Lahiri & Fushang Liu, 2006. "Modelling multi‐period inflation uncertainty using a panel of density forecasts," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(8), pages 1199-1219, December.
    17. Paul Castillo & Alberto Humala & Vicente Tuesta, 2007. "Monetary Policy, Regime Shifts, and Inflation Uncertainty in Peru (1949-2006)," Working Papers 2007-005, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú.
    18. Lorenzo, Fernando & Ruiz Ortega, Esther, 1997. "Estimación de la volatilidad de la inflación en presencia de observaciones atípicas y heteroscedasticidad condicional," DES - Documentos de Trabajo. Estadística y Econometría. DS 3648, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Estadística.
    19. Wilson, Bradley Kemp, 2006. "The links between inflation, inflation uncertainty and output growth: New time series evidence from Japan," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 609-620, September.
    20. E. Yuksel & Y. Akdi, 2009. "The effect of different inflation risks on interest rates of the US," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 169-175.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedkrw:99-08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Zach Kastens (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbkcus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.