Matthew Greenwood-Nimmo

Taxation and the asymmetric adjustment of selected retail energy prices in the UK

This paper investigates the adjustment of the prices of four key petroleum products in the UK following changes in the price of crude oil. We find significant evidence that the pre-tax prices of diesel, kerosene, and gas oil adjust more rapidly in an upward than a downward direction, but that the pre-tax price of unleaded petrol adjusts symmetrically. However, these patterns are obscured at the pump once one accounts for fuel duty and value-added tax, raising the possibility that firms can use the tax system to conceal rent-seeking behaviour.

Risk and return spillovers among the G10 currencies

We study spillovers among daily returns and innovations in option-implied risk-neutral volatility and skewness of the G10 currencies. An empirical network model uncovers substantial time variation in the interaction of risk measures and returns, both within and between currencies. We find that aggregate spillover intensity is countercyclical with respect to the federal funds rate and increases in periods of financial stress. During these times, volatility spillovers and especially skewness spillovers between currencies increase, reflecting greater systematic risk. Likewise, linkages between returns and risk measures strengthen in times of stress, with returns becoming more sensitive to risk measures and vice versa.

Shifting Preferences at the Fed: Evidence from Rolling Dynamic Multipliers and Impulse Response Analysis

The existing empirical literature on Taylor-type interest rate rules has failed to achieve a robust consensus. Indeed, the relatively common finding that the Taylor principle does not hold has fueled a degree of controversy in the field. We attribute these mixed estimation results to a raft of empirical issues from which many existing studies suffer, including bias, inconsistency, endogeneity and a failure to adequately account for the combination of persistent and stationary variables. We propose a new method of combining I(0) and I(1) series in a system setting based on the long-run structural approach of Garratt, Lee, Pesaran and Shin (2006). The application of this method to a long sample of US data provides modest support for the operation of a Taylor-type rule, albeit with considerable inertia. We argue that estimation across rolling windows may better reflect shifts in the underlying preferences of the monetary policymakers at the Federal Reserve. Such rolling estimation provides substantial evidence that the inflation and output preferences of the Fed have varied through time, presumably reflecting the prevailing economic and political conditions, its chairmanship, and the composition of the Federal Open Market Committee. Our most significant finding is that the Taylor Principle was robustly upheld under Volcker, often upheld pre-Volcker but rarely observed post-Volcker over any horizon.

Measuring the Connectedness of the Global Economy

We develop a technique to evaluate macroeconomic connectedness in any multi-country macroeconomic model with an approximate VAR representation. We apply our technique to a large Global VAR covering 25 countries and derive vivid representations of the connectedness of the system. We show that the US, the Eurozone and the crude oil market exert a dominant influence in the global economy and that the Chinese and Brazilian economies are also globally significant. Recursive analysis over the period of the global financial crisis shows that shocks to global equity markets are rapidly and forcefully transmitted to real trade flows and real GDP.

Inflation targeting monetary and fiscal policies in a two-country stock–flow-consistent model

This paper develops a simple two-country stock–flow-consistent model based on that of Godley and Lavoie. In order to motivate the use of stabilisation policies, persistent inflationary pressure and endogenous economic cycles are introduced into the model. Three scenarios are then simulated: a step decrease in real exports from country B, increased wage pressure in country B and an income tax cut in country A. In all cases, monetary and fiscal policies in isolation enjoy little success, but a combined monetary and fiscal approach to stabilisation proves highly effective. Moreover, the model suggests that the pursuit of autonomous inflation targeting in each country introduces excessive exchange rate volatility relative to an alternative rule in which one central bank takes a leading role in interest rate setting.

International Linkages of the Korean Economy: The Global Vector Error-Correcting Macroeconometric Modelling Approach

This paper analyses the international linkages of the Korean economy using the GVAR model developed by Greenwood-Nimmo, Nguyen and Shin (2012a, J. Appl. Econometrics). By employing a combination of generalised impulse response analysis and forecast error variance decompositions, we uncover a number of interesting phenomena. Among our most important results are the findings that the real economy and the financial markets are highly sensitive to the oil price even though it has little effect on inflation and that the interest rate is set largely without recourse to overseas conditions except to the extent that they are captured by the exchange rate. We find that the dominant sources of overseas influence on the Korean economy are the US, the Eurozone, Japan and China. Korea’s complex and open linkages with these countries will inevitably pose challenges for domestic economic management and stabilisation policy faced by the Korean monetary and fiscal authorities.

On the Asymmetric U-Shaped Relationship between Inflation, Inflation Uncertainty and Relative Price Skewness in the UK

We investigate asymmetries in the relationship between the aggregate rate of inflation and the second and third central moments of the cross-sectional distribution of relative prices using a modified Calvo pricing model with regime-dependent price rigidities. Calibration experiments using realistic parameterisations reveal that the inflation-standard deviation and inflation-skewness relationships exhibit U-shaped asymmetries around the historical mean rate of inflation. We conclude that monetary policy should target a level of inflation proximate to the (common) minima of these nonlinear relationships and that core inflation measures exclude much of the information contained in the higher moments of the distribution of price changes. ∗Kausik Chaudhuri is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds (E-mail: kc@lubs.leeds.ac.uk). †Matthew Greenwood-Nimmo is a Lecturer in Economics at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds (E-mail: mjgn@lubs.leeds.ac.uk). ‡Minjoo Kim is a Lecturer in Economics at The Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow (E-mail: Minjoo.Kim@glasgow.ac.uk). §Yongcheol Shin is a Professor of Applied Econometrics in the Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York (E-mail: yongcheol.shin@york.ac.uk).

Using Global VAR Models for Scenario-Based Forecasting and Policy Analysis

This chapter demonstrates the usefulness of the GVAR modelling framework as a tool for scenario-based forecasting and counterfactual analysis. Working with the GVAR model developed by Greenwood-Nimmo, Nguyen and Shin (2010, J. Appl. Econometrics), we first show how probabilistic forecasting can be applied to the analysis of global imbalances. Probabilistic forecasting involves evaluating the conditional probability that a given event or combination of events will occur over a defined horizon by means of model-based simulations. To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, we develop a simple four-way probabilistic classi ficatory system built around the notions of balancing improvement in the trade balance, unbalancing improvement, balancing deterioration and unbalancing deterioration. We then extend a similar approach in a counterfactual context by constructing a range of scenarios as linear combinations of generalised impulse responses. We conclude that GVAR models are particularly well-suited to scenario-based analyses such as ours as they have the potential to analyse singularly rich datasets that allow the modeller to construct a wide range of policy-relevant scenarios.

Quantifying Informational Linkages in a Global Model of Currency Spot Markets

We develop a global vector autoregressive model to study the transmission of information between currency spot markets. Our model accounts for both simultaneous and dynamic interactions between exchange rates and order flows using historical data from the Reuters Dealing 2000–1 platform for the period May–August 1996. By analysing the network topography of the system, we find that currency markets are intricately linked and that the Deutsche Mark and the Yen exert a leading influence over the European currencies. Furthermore, using a novel technique we find that the Yen and Sterling act as safe haven currencies.

What’s Mine Is Yours: Sovereign Risk Transmission during the European Debt Crisis

We develop an empirical network model to study bilateral sovereign credit risk spillovers during the European debt crisis. We show that the spillover density is typically asymmetric with heavy tails. This confounds efforts to track time-variation in spillover activity using the mean-based summary statistics that are widespread in the literature. Density-based measures — specifically divergence criteria — yield stronger and timelier signals of changes in spillover activity than mean-based measures. This is particularly apparent for sovereign bailouts, which principally affect the tails of the spillover density. Consequently, densitybased measures provide valuable additional information about changes in the credit risk environment.