Causes of Japan's Low Inflation in the 21st Century

Causes of Japan's Low Inflation in the 21st Century PDF Author: Niklas Humann
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346697665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: 1.3, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: The objective of this paper is to not only give an overview of Japan’s Lost Decades and its pioneering use of monetary and fiscal policy measures, but to also investigate why Japan was unable to lift itself out of the deflationary slump. Over the years, the literature has identified a variety of different factors, that have temporarily pushed the Japanese inflation rate into negative territory, but no single explanation was yet able to reveal the permanence of it. This paper will hence follow the literature in considering different factors, grouping them into demand and supply factors, to ease the analysis. An additional focus of this study will be on the Bank of Japan’s pioneering, yet dissatisfying use of monetary policy. Japan’s struggle with (consumper price) deflation began in the aftermath of the asset bubble and subsequent banking crisis in the 1990s. The period since then has become known as the Lost Decades, which are characterized by negative output growth, moderate deflation, as well as rising income inequality. While Japan’s bouts with deflation are interesting from a practical point of view, regarding their negative consequences on the economy and ultimately the people of Japan, they are even more interesting from a theoretical point of view, as part of a discussion and refinement of alternative theories of economic fluctuations.

Causes of Japan's Low Inflation in the 21st Century

Causes of Japan's Low Inflation in the 21st Century PDF Author: Niklas Humann
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346697665
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Get Book

Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: 1.3, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: The objective of this paper is to not only give an overview of Japan’s Lost Decades and its pioneering use of monetary and fiscal policy measures, but to also investigate why Japan was unable to lift itself out of the deflationary slump. Over the years, the literature has identified a variety of different factors, that have temporarily pushed the Japanese inflation rate into negative territory, but no single explanation was yet able to reveal the permanence of it. This paper will hence follow the literature in considering different factors, grouping them into demand and supply factors, to ease the analysis. An additional focus of this study will be on the Bank of Japan’s pioneering, yet dissatisfying use of monetary policy. Japan’s struggle with (consumper price) deflation began in the aftermath of the asset bubble and subsequent banking crisis in the 1990s. The period since then has become known as the Lost Decades, which are characterized by negative output growth, moderate deflation, as well as rising income inequality. While Japan’s bouts with deflation are interesting from a practical point of view, regarding their negative consequences on the economy and ultimately the people of Japan, they are even more interesting from a theoretical point of view, as part of a discussion and refinement of alternative theories of economic fluctuations.

Inflation Expectations

Inflation Expectations PDF Author: Peter J. N. Sinclair
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135179778
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Inflation is regarded by the many as a menace that damages business and can only make life worse for households. Keeping it low depends critically on ensuring that firms and workers expect it to be low. So expectations of inflation are a key influence on national economic welfare. This collection pulls together a galaxy of world experts (including Roy Batchelor, Richard Curtin and Staffan Linden) on inflation expectations to debate different aspects of the issues involved. The main focus of the volume is on likely inflation developments. A number of factors have led practitioners and academic observers of monetary policy to place increasing emphasis recently on inflation expectations. One is the spread of inflation targeting, invented in New Zealand over 15 years ago, but now encompassing many important economies including Brazil, Canada, Israel and Great Britain. Even more significantly, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the United States Federal Bank are the leading members of another group of monetary institutions all considering or implementing moves in the same direction. A second is the large reduction in actual inflation that has been observed in most countries over the past decade or so. These considerations underscore the critical – and largely underrecognized - importance of inflation expectations. They emphasize the importance of the issues, and the great need for a volume that offers a clear, systematic treatment of them. This book, under the steely editorship of Peter Sinclair, should prove very important for policy makers and monetary economists alike.

Japan’s Lost Decade

Japan’s Lost Decade PDF Author: Naoyuki Yoshino
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 981105021X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
This book discusses Japan’s long-term economic recession and provides remedies for that recession that are useful for other Asian economies. The book addresses why Japan’s economy has stagnated since the bursting of its economic bubble in the 1990s. Its empirical analysis challenges the beliefs of some economists, such as Paul Krugman, that the Japanese economy is caught in a liquidity trap. This book argues that Japan’s economic stagnation stems from a vertical “investment–saving” (IS) curve rather than a liquidity trap. The impact of fiscal policy has declined drastically, and the Japanese economy faces structural problems rather than a temporary downturn. These structural problems have many causes: an aging demographic (a problem that is frequently overlooked), an over-reliance by local governments on transfers from the central government, and Basel capital requirements that have made Japanese banks reluctant to lend money to start-up businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises. This latter issue has discouraged Japanese innovation and technological progress. All these issues are addressed empirically and theoretically, and several remedies for Japan’s long-lasting recession are provided. This volume will be of interest to researchers and policy makers not only in Japan but also the People’s Republic of China, many countries in the eurozone, and the United States, which may face similar challenges in the future.

Japanese Monetary Policy

Japanese Monetary Policy PDF Author: Kenneth J. Singleton
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226760685
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
How has the Bank of Japan (BOJ) helped shape Japan's economic growth during the past two decades? This book comprehensively explores the relations between financial market liberalization and BOJ policies and examines the ways in which these policies promoted economic growth in the 1980s. The authors argue that the structure of Japan's financial markets, particularly restrictions on money-market transactions and the key role of commercial banks in financing corporate investments, allowed the BOJ to influence Japan's economic success. The first two chapters provide the most in-depth English-language discussion of the BOJ's operating procedures and policymaker's views about how BOJ actions affect the Japanese business cycle. Chapter three explores the impact of the BOJ's distinctive window guidance policy on corporate investment, while chapter four looks at how monetary policy affects the term structure of interest rates in Japan. The final two chapters examine the overall effect of monetary policy on real aggregate economic activity. This volume will prove invaluable not only to economists interested in the technical operating procedures of the BOJ, but also to those interested in the Japanese economy and in the operation and outcome of monetary reform in general.

Japan's Bubble, Deflation, and Long-term Stagnation

Japan's Bubble, Deflation, and Long-term Stagnation PDF Author: Kōichi Hamada
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262014890
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
New perspectives on Japan's "lost decade" viewed in the context of recent financial turmoil.

Inflation in Emerging and Developing Economies

Inflation in Emerging and Developing Economies PDF Author: Jongrim Ha
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464813760
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive study in the context of EMDEs that covers, in one consistent framework, the evolution and global and domestic drivers of inflation, the role of expectations, exchange rate pass-through and policy implications. In addition, the report analyzes inflation and monetary policy related challenges in LICs. The report documents three major findings: In First, EMDE disinflation over the past four decades was to a significant degree a result of favorable external developments, pointing to the risk of rising EMDE inflation if global inflation were to increase. In particular, the decline in EMDE inflation has been supported by broad-based global disinflation amid rapid international trade and financial integration and the disruption caused by the global financial crisis. While domestic factors continue to be the main drivers of short-term movements in EMDE inflation, the role of global factors has risen by one-half between the 1970s and the 2000s. On average, global shocks, especially oil price swings and global demand shocks have accounted for more than one-quarter of domestic inflation variatio--and more in countries with stronger global linkages and greater reliance on commodity imports. In LICs, global food and energy price shocks accounted for another 12 percent of core inflation variatio--half more than in advanced economies and one-fifth more than in non-LIC EMDEs. Second, inflation expectations continue to be less well-anchored in EMDEs than in advanced economies, although a move to inflation targeting and better fiscal frameworks has helped strengthen monetary policy credibility. Lower monetary policy credibility and exchange rate flexibility have also been associated with higher pass-through of exchange rate shocks into domestic inflation in the event of global shocks, which have accounted for half of EMDE exchange rate variation. Third, in part because of poorly anchored inflation expectations, the transmission of global commodity price shocks to domestic LIC inflation (combined with unintended consequences of other government policies) can have material implications for poverty: the global food price spikes in 2010-11 tipped roughly 8 million people into poverty.

The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy

The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy PDF Author: Thomas F. Cargill
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262262071
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The contributions in this book provide a unique view of its emergence and growth in a number of different national settings in an area of the Third World where the industry is most advanced. In The Political Economy of Japanese Monetary Policy, Cargill, Hutchison, and Ito investigate the formulation and execution of monetary and financial policies in Japan within a broad technical, political, and institutional context.Their emphasis is on the period since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the early 1970s, and on the effects of policies and institutions in shaping the modern Japanese economy. The authors present basic themes and recent developments, as well as their own research findings.They also review and integrate the large literature in the area. They consider theoretical arguments and empirical evidence for each topic discussed. Topics covered include Japan's low inflation record (despite the central bank's lack of formal independence from the government); politically motivated business cycles and the timing of elections; exchange rate policy and international policy coordination; the historical development of central banking; Japan's "bubble economy" of the 1980s; and the causes, magnitude, and regulatory responses to Japan's banking and financial crisis of the 1990s.

Understanding the Costs of Deflation in the Japanese Context

Understanding the Costs of Deflation in the Japanese Context PDF Author: Mr.Taimur Baig
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451875061
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
This paper examines the cost of deflation in the context of Japan's ongoing deflationary episode. The impact of deflation owing to the zero interest rate bound on monetary policy, wage rigidity, redistribution of wealth from debtor to creditor, and inflexibilities in the financial sector are examined. It is seen that the generalized decline in the Japanese price level, however gradual or mild, has substantially exacerbated the economy's adjustment process under already difficult economic conditions.

Monetary Policy with Very Low Inflation in the Pacific Rim

Monetary Policy with Very Low Inflation in the Pacific Rim PDF Author: Takatoshi Ito
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226379019
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Extremely low inflation rates have moved to the forefront of monetary policy discussions. In Asia, a number of countries—most prominently Japan, but also Taiwan and China—have actually experienced deflation over the last fifteen years. Monetary Policy with Very Low Inflation in the Pacific Rim explores the factors that have contributed to these circumstances and forecasts some of the potential challenges faced by these nations, as well as some potential solutions. The editors of this volume attribute low inflation and deflation in the region to a number of recent phenomena. Some of these episodes, they argue, may be linked to rapid growth on the supply side of economies. Here, inadequate demand policy can produce what is referred to as a "liquidity trap" in which the expectation of falling prices encourages agents to defer costly purchases, thereby discouraging growth. Low inflation rates can also be traced to the presence of a "zero-lower bound" on interest rates, as well as the inflation-targeting phenomenon. Targets have been set so low, the editors argue, that in some cases a few bad shocks lead to deflation.

International Macroeconomics in the Wake of the Global Financial Crisis

International Macroeconomics in the Wake of the Global Financial Crisis PDF Author: Laurent Ferrara
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319790757
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This book collects selected articles addressing several currently debated issues in the field of international macroeconomics. They focus on the role of the central banks in the debate on how to come to terms with the long-term decline in productivity growth, insufficient aggregate demand, high economic uncertainty and growing inequalities following the global financial crisis. Central banks are of considerable importance in this debate since understanding the sluggishness of the recovery process as well as its implications for the natural interest rate are key to assessing output gaps and the monetary policy stance. The authors argue that a more dynamic domestic and external aggregate demand helps to raise the inflation rate, easing the constraint deriving from the zero lower bound and allowing monetary policy to depart from its current ultra-accommodative position. Beyond macroeconomic factors, the book also discusses a supportive financial environment as a precondition for the rebound of global economic activity, stressing that understanding capital flows is a prerequisite for economic-policy decisions.