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Interwar Inflation, Unexpected Inflation, and Output Growth

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  • BILL DORVAL
  • GREGOR W. SMITH

Abstract

Interwar macroeconomic history is a natural place to look for evidence on the correlation between output growth and inflation or unexpected inflation. We apply time‐series methods to measure unexpected inflation for more than 20 countries using both retail and wholesale prices. There is a significant, positive correlation between output growth and inflation for the entire period. There is little evidence that this correlation is caused by an underlying role for unexpected inflation. For wholesale price inflation in particular, the output declines associated with deflations were larger than the output increases associated with inflations of the same scale.

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  • Bill Dorval & Gregor W. Smith, 2015. "Interwar Inflation, Unexpected Inflation, and Output Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(8), pages 1599-1615, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:47:y:2015:i:8:p:1599-1615
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.12285
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    3. Liang, Qi & Sun, Wenjia & Li, Wenyu & Yu, Fengyan, 2021. "Media effects matter: Macroeconomic announcements in the gold futures market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-12.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • N10 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - General, International, or Comparative

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