This paper investigates empirically the proposition that imports provide a competitive constraint, or discipline, on the price-raising ability of domestic producers. Estimates of the effect of changes in import competition (measured as changes in the ratio of the value of imports to the value of...

In the context of the continuing debate on Fund conditionality, many researchers both inside and outside the Fund have attempted to estimate the effects of Fund programs through the use of multicountry samples. A key challenge in such work is to estimate the counterfactual--that is, what would...

The significant increase in exchange rate variability over the last several years has made it necessary for all countries, regardless of their exchange rate policies, to consider the effect of multilateral exchange rate changes on their balance of payments. This study presents an attempt to...

This paper provides an eclectic review and analysis of some of the potential costs and benefits likely to be associated with the implementation of wage indexation in an industrial economy. It suggests, inter alia, that few meaningful generalizations can be drawn about the probable effects of...

This paper examines the proposition that flexible exchange rates are more (less) inflationary than a system of fixed exchange rates. In contrast to much of the earlier writing on this issue, care is taken to distinguish between: (i) the effects on a single country's inflation rate and effects on...

Dans cette étude, l'auteur examine s'il serait possible, en appliquant une politique anti-inflationniste fondée sur une approche sélective par industrie, d'atténuer le problème que pose, en courte période, aux entreprises américaines, l'alternative entre la stabilité des prix et...

Il s'est avéré très difficile, dans de nombreux pays, de concilier le plein emploi et la stabilité des prix. A en juger d'après les expériences antérieures, les responsables de la politique économique se heurtent au dilemme d'une relation inverse: les efforts pour accroître la...

This study provides an empirical analysis of the probable effects of exchange rate changes on aggregate wage and price behavior in the United Kingdom, employing a simple and widely used two-equation model of U. K. wage and price behavior. In this model, changes in money wage rates are a function...

This paper identifies key issues surrounding the advisability and practicality of adopting "target zones" for the exchange rates of major currencies. Four fundamental questions concerning the definition of and the rationale for target zones are addressed: first, what is generally meant by a...

This article examines the effect of import price changes on the domestic rate of inflation for each of five large industrial countries--the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy. More specifically, empirical tests are conducted to determine if there...