IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04140872.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fisher, Macaulay et Allais face au "Paradoxe de Gibson"

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Jacques Durand
  • Georges Prat

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

According to the quantitative theory of money, an expansion of the money supply leads both to a decrease of interest rates and an increase of the general level of good prices. This negative correlation expected between these two variables being contradicted by the positive correlation observed – pointed out by Gibson and confirmed by further studies - Keynes refers to the so-called "Gibson's paradox". I. Fisher proposed an explanation of this "paradox" with the slowness of the adjustments of interest rates to the rate of change in the general price level. However, F.R. Macaulay showed that, since the delays found by Fisher go up far in the past, this implies a necessary correlation between the price level and the weighted average of past rates of change in the price level found by Fisher. This arises the following question: does the correlation between interest rates and the price level result from a fisherian behaviour of agents or, on the contrary, do Fisher's results are spurious since due to the correlation between price level and interest rates? However, Macaulay's criticism loses its relevance when the delays are short, as observed during periods of hyperinflation and after the Second World War. With respect to this debate, the merit of the Allais' Hereditary and Relativist (HR) theory is to suggest a synthesis with his "psychological rate of interest" hypothesis. Depending on past values of the rate of change in price level and production, this latter, which equals the "rate of forgetfulness", represents the general trend of market interest rates. When the memory is long (i.e. the "rate of forgetfulness" is weak), the psychological rate of interest is necessarily correlated with the price level and then explains the positive correlation – which may be more or less stable due to the production effects – between market interest rates and the price level. But when the memory is short (i.e. the rate of forgetfulness high), the HR theory implies both the disappearance of the correlation between interest rate and the price level and the existence of a positive correlation between interest rate and the rate of change in the price level.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Jacques Durand & Georges Prat, 2009. "Fisher, Macaulay et Allais face au "Paradoxe de Gibson"," Working Papers hal-04140872, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04140872
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04140872
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-04140872/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sargent, Thomas J, 1973. "Interest Rates and Prices in the Long Run: A Study of the Gibson Paradox," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 5(1), pages 385-449, Part II F.
    2. François Gardes & Pierre Levy, 1994. "Taux d'intérêt et prix : paradoxe de Gibson ou phénomène de Kitchin ?," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 9(3), pages 157-197.
    3. Lee, Chi-Wen Jevons & Petruzzi, Christopher R., 1987. "Prices, interest rates, and the monetary standard: A study of the Gibson-Kitchin phenomenon," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 185-202.
    4. Thomas J. Sargent, 1969. "Commodity Price Expectations and the Interest Rate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 83(1), pages 127-140.
    5. Thomas J. Sargent, 1972. "Anticipated Inflation and the Nominal Rate of Interest," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 86(2), pages 212-225.
    6. Shiller, Robert J & Siegel, Jeremy J, 1977. "The Gibson Paradox and Historical Movements in Real Interest Rates," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(5), pages 891-907, October.
    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. Zijp, R. van & Visser, H., 1992. "Mathematical formalization and the analysis of Cantillon effects," Serie Research Memoranda 0002, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    2. James Payne & Bradley Ewing, 1997. "Evidence from lesser developed countries on the Fisher hypothesis: a cointegration analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(11), pages 683-687.
    3. John Y. Campbell, 1986. "Bond and Stock Returns in a Simple Exchange Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 785-803.
    4. Škare, Marinko & Mošnja-Škare, Lorena, 2019. "Economic policy implications of the Gibson Law in the Netherlands (1800–2012)," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 926-942.
    5. Binder, Carola Conces, 2016. "Estimation of historical inflation expectations," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-31.
    6. Robert B. Barsky & J. Bradford De Long, 1988. "Forecasting Pre-World War I Inflation: The Fisher Effect Revisited," NBER Working Papers 2784, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chadha, Jagjit S. & Perlman, Morris, 2014. "Was the Gibson Paradox for real? A Wicksellian study of the relationship between interest rates and prices," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(2), pages 139-163, August.
    8. Cucciniello, Maria Chiara & Deleidi, Matteo & Levrero, Enrico Sergio, 2022. "The cost channel of monetary policy: The case of the United States in the period 1959–2018," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 409-433.
    9. Barsky, Robert B., 1987. "The Fisher hypothesis and the forecastability and persistence of inflation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 3-24, January.
    10. Dr Ferda Halicioglou, 2004. "The Gibson Paradox: An Empirical Investigation for Turkey," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1-2), pages 111-120.
    11. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1978. "Price Inflation, Portfolio Choice, and Nominal Interest Rates," NBER Working Papers 0235, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Seçkin Kabak & Tuðçe Dallý, 2023. "Gibson Paradox: Panel Data Analysis on ASEAN-T Countries," International Econometric Review (IER), Econometric Research Association, vol. 15(1), pages 12-27, March.
    13. Zijp, R. van, 1991. "The rise of new classical economics," Serie Research Memoranda 0077, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    14. Dario Cziráky & Max Gillman, 2006. "Money Demand in an EU Accession Country: A VECM Study of Croatia," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 105-127, April.
    15. Paul Evans & Xiaojun Wang, 2008. "A Tale of Two Effects," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 147-157, February.
    16. Law, Siong Hook & Tan, Hui & baharumshah, ahmad, 1999. "Financial Liberalization in ASEAN and the Fisher Hypothesis," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 33, pages 65-86.
    17. Bordo, Michael D., 1986. "Explorations in monetary history: A survey of the literature," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 339-415, October.
    18. Hassen GUENICHI & Hamdi KHALFAOUI, 2019. "Monetary policy and economic growth," Journal of Academic Finance, RED research unit, university of Gabes, Tunisia, vol. 10(2), pages 49-68, December.
    19. Claus Brand & Nuno Cassola, 2004. "A money demand system for euro area M3," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(8), pages 817-838.
    20. Jean-Michel Grandmont & Gérard Neel, 1973. "Sur les taux d'intérêt en France," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 24(3), pages 460-472.

    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:hal:wpaper:hal-04140872. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.