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Inflation Strikes Back: The Role of Import Competition and the Labor Market

In: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2023, volume 38

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  • Mary Amiti
  • Sebastian Heise
  • Fatih Karahan
  • Ayşegül Şahin

Abstract

U.S. inflation has recently surged, with inflation reaching its highest readings since the early 1980s. We examine the drivers of this rise in inflation, focusing on supply chain disruptions, labor supply constraints, and their interaction. Using a calibrated two-sector New Keynesian DSGE model with multiple factors of production, foreign competition, and endogenous markups, we find that supply chain disruptions combined with a rise in the disutility of work raised inflation by about 2 percentage points in the 2021-22 period. We show that the combined shock increased price inflation in the model by 0.6 percentage point more than it would have risen if the shocks had hit separately. This amplification arises because the joint shock to labor and imported input prices makes substituting between labor and intermediates less effective for domestic firms. Moreover, the simultaneous foreign competition shock allows domestic producers to increase their pass-through into prices without losing market share. We then show that the benefit of aggressive monetary policy in the model depends on the source of the rise in inflation. If the rise in inflation is demand-driven, then aggressive monetary tightening can contain inflation without a recession later. In contrast, aggressive policy can have a large negative effect on the labor market when inflation is driven by supply chain and labor market disruptions. We use aggregate and industry-level data on producer prices, wages, and input prices to provide corroborating evidence for the key amplification channels in the model.
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Suggested Citation

  • Mary Amiti & Sebastian Heise & Fatih Karahan & Ayşegül Şahin, 2023. "Inflation Strikes Back: The Role of Import Competition and the Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2023, volume 38, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:14851
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    Cited by:

    1. Crump, Richard K. & Eusepi, Stefano & Giannoni, Marc & Şahin, Ayşegül, 2024. "The unemployment–inflation trade-off revisited: The Phillips curve in COVID times," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(S).
    2. Hänsel, Matthias, 2024. "Idiosyncratic Risk, Government Debt and Inflation," VfS Annual Conference 2024 (Berlin): Upcoming Labor Market Challenges 302403, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Diego Comin & Robert C. Johnson & Callum J. Jones, 2023. "Supply Chain Constraints and Inflation," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-075, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Miguel Ampudia & Marco Jacopo Lombardi & Théodore Renault, 2024. "The wage-price pass-through across sectors: evidence from the euro area," BIS Working Papers 1192, Bank for International Settlements.
    5. Matthias Hansel, 2024. "Idiosyncratic Risk, Government Debt and Inflation," Papers 2403.00471, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2024.
    6. Aquilante, Tommaso & Dogan, Aydan & Firat, Melih & Soenarjo, Aditya, 2024. "Global value chains and the dynamics of UK inflation," Bank of England working papers 1060, Bank of England.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

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