Carlos Robalo Marques

Evaluating Core Inflation Indicators

This paper proposes testable conditions that core inflation measures should satisfy. Trend inflation indicators calculated by Banco de Portugal are tested against this background. The major conclusion is that the so-called “underlying inflation”, the “10% trimmed mean”, and the “25% trimmed mean” do not meet the proposed conditions. However, they are satisfied by the “37-month centred moving average”, the “first principal component” and the “standard deviation weighted CPI” indicators. Yet, only the last two indicators can be used as useful core inflation measures, as the first one is not computable in real time.

The Bank Lending Channel of Monetary Policy: Identification and Estimation Using Portuguese Micro Bank Data

This paper investigates the existence of the bank-lending channel in the transmission of monetary policy using Portuguese micro bank data. In contrast to the conventional approach, which addresses the identification issue by resorting to reduced form equations for bank credit with variables in differences, we directly estimate loan-supply schedules with variables in levels, thereby exploiting recent results on cointegration for panel data. We conclude that there is evidence of the existence of a bank-lending channel, and that the importance of the bank lending-channel is larger for less capitalised banks.

Why Should Central Banks Avoid the Use of the Underlying Inflation Indicator

This paper assesses the usefulness of the commonly used underlying inflation indicator, in light of the criteria proposed in Marques et al. (2000). Empirical evidence for a group of six countries strongly suggets that the use of underlying inflation as an indicator of trend inflation should be avoided.

A Tale of Two Sectors; Why is Misallocation Higher in Services than in Manufacturing?

Recent empirical studies document that the level of resource misallocation in the service sector is significantly higher than in the manufacturing sector. We quantify the importance of this difference and study its sources. Conservative estimates for Portugal (2008) show that closing this gap, by reducing misallocation in the service sector to manufacturing levels, would boost aggregate gross output by around 12 percent and aggregate value added by around 31 percent. Differences in the effect and size of productivity shocks explain most of the gap in misallocation between manufacturing and services, while the remainder is explained by differences in firm productivity and age distribution. We interpret these results as stemming mainly from higher output price rigidity, greater labor adjustment costs and more informality in the service sector.