The relationship between inflation and relative price variability (RPV) is widely believed to be positive and stable. Using disaggregated CPI data for the U.S. and Japan, however, this study finds that the relationship is neither linear nor stable over time. The overall relationship is approximately U-shaped and symmetric around a certain threshold: a positive correlation on one side but a trad...

We present a simple agency model where agents can inflate the price that principals pay for goods needed to start an investment project. High and variable inflation is assumed to increase the cost of monitoring the agent. We then show how this can lead to higher corruption and lower investment in equilibrium. We also document a positive relationship between corruption and inflation variability ...

The relationship between inflation and relative price variability (RPV) is widely believed to be positive and stable. Using disaggregated CPI data for the U.S. and Japan, however, this study finds that the relationship is neither linear nor stable over time. The overall relationship is approximately U-shaped and symmetric around a certain threshold: a positive correlation on one side but a trad...

The Great Moderation is often characterized by the decline in the variability of output and inflation from earlier periods. While a multitude of explanations for the Great Moderation exist, notable research has focused on the role of monetary policy. Specifically, early evidence suggested that this increased stability is the result of monetary policy that responded much more strongly to realize...

The Great Moderation is often characterized by the decline in the variability of output and inflation from earlier periods. While a multitude of explanations for the Great Moderation exist, notable research has focused on the role of monetary policy. Specifically, early evidence suggested that the increased stability has been associated with monetary policy that responded much more strongly to ...

This paper uses recent developments in measuring correlation to examine the relationship between inflation and relative price variability. The results suggest that the positive correlation holds not only in the short-run but also in the long-run. This finding has important implications for theoretical models that purport to explain this relationship: such models must incorporate features that g...

We point out that, if quantum field renormalization is taken into account and the counterterms are evaluated at the Hubble-radius crossing time or few e-foldings after it, the predictions of slow-roll inflation for both the scalar and the tensorial power spectrum change significantly. This leads to a change in the consistency condition that relates the tensor-to-scalar amplitude ratio with spec...

Spacetime singularities have been discovered which are physically much weaker than those predicted by the classical singularity theorems. Geodesics evolve through them and they only display infinities in the derivatives of their curvature invariants. So far, these singularities have appeared to require rather exotic and unphysical matter for their occurrence. Here we show that a large class of ...

The essential reason that a 100-percent-reserve gold standard should be the ultimate goal of monetary reform is that it would secure the economic system against the evils both of inflation and of deflation–depression. In addition, it would be consistent with the fundamental moral–political principle of the absence of the initiation of physical force and thus the positive presence of individual ...

We perform a numerical investigation of the fields evolution in the supersymmetric inflationary model based on radiative corrections. Supergravity corrections are also included. We find that, out of all the examined initial data, only about 10% give an adequate amount of inflation and can be considered as ”natural”. Moreover, these successful initial conditions appear scattered and more or less...