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This paper studies the widespread price dispersion of homogeneous products across different online platforms, even when consumers can easily access price information from comparison websites. We collect data for the 200 most popular hotels in London (UK) and document that prices vary widely across booking sites while making reservations for a hotel room. Additionally, we find that prices listed across different platforms tend to converge as the booking date gets closer to the date of stay. However, the price dispersion persists until the date of stay, implying that the law of one price does not hold. We present a simple theoretical model to explain this and show that in the presence of aggregate demand uncertainty and capacity constraints, price dispersion could exist even when products are homogeneous, consumers are homogeneous, all agents have perfect information about the market structure, and consumers face no search costs to acquire information about the products. Our theoretical intuition and robust empirical evidence provide additional insights into price dispersion across online platforms in different institutional settings. Our study complements the existing literature that relies on consumer search costs to explain the price dispersion phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validity of absolute purchasing power parity (APPP) between the pairs of 55 representative countries, along with their pooled data, is examined empirically. A rule of thumb for the validity of APPP is tentatively proposed. That is, for a pair of countries exhibiting the Penn effect, when the GDP per capita of one country is less than half of the other's, it is very likely that APPP does not hold. However, when the GDP per capita of one country is greater than half of the other's, there is a certain possibility that APPP holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing a novel instrumental variable method, we provide three findings with the idea of introducing regime switching into the NKPC for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. First, the response of inflation to the driving force is asymmetric in expansion/contraction, and high/low inflation regimes. The switch between regimes changes the inflation dynamics, thus changing the trade-off between stabilizing inflation and the output gap. Second, price stickiness changes in regimes. The price rigidity explains the inflation-output gap and the inflation-law of one price gap relationship across regimes. Third, inflation dynamics are more forward-looking in the expansionary regime. These results yield the implications of targeting deviations from the law of one price for stabilizing inflation and business cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing New Keynesian open economy literature tends to make the simplifying assumption that there is no trend inflation. In this paper, we reformulate the standard open economy model to account for positive trend inflation. We then employ the model to understand the effects of macroeconomic shocks in a small open economy when trend inflation is positive. Our main finding is that allowing for trend inflation significantly affects the dynamics of the model through real exchange rate dynamics rather than the slope of the New Keynesian Philips Curve. Specifically, higher trend inflation induces modestly more persistent real exchange rates' responses to the shocks. Further incorporation of trend inflation in an open economy enables us to discuss the Purchasing Power Parity and Delayed Overshooting Puzzles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares the trajectory of Hong Kong's purchasing power parity–adjusted GDP per capita before and after the 1997 handover with the trajectory of a weighted combination of similar economies, using weights determined endogenously by data. The synthetic Hong Kong is constructed to provide the counterfactual of what would have happened to Hong Kong economy in the absence of transfer of sovereignty. We find that Hong Kong economy is negatively affected, and the gap between actual and synthetic Hong Kong from 1997 to 2001 on average is 7% of the 1996 level if Japan receives the greatest weight. The average negative effect becomes 9% if Singapore receives the greatest weight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of market uncertainty on a country's currency, while widely recognized, is either omitted from mainstream models or addressed using low-frequency series, which are typically subject to aggregation bias and substantial lags. In this article, we propose a new mixed-data sampling (MIDAS) modelling framework that enables us to incorporate the asymmetric daily effects of market uncertainty in a conventional monthly error correction model. We achieve this by proxying market uncertainty via the value of a 'safe haven' asset (gold) that investors reallocate towards in the face of heightened market risk. We apply the model to the Iranian black-market exchange rate, using a mix of the daily price of gold (28 June 2010–19 August 2018) and monthly data (July 2010-July 2018) on relative prices. Our results indicate that purchasing power parity (PPP) holds despite the recent unprecedented depreciations in the Iranian currency arising from several rounds of international sanctions. We also find that increased uncertainty can lead to instantaneous and substantial depreciations, whereas stabilization back towards the PPP path is much more sluggish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis for 12 Latin American Real Effective Exchange Rates (REERs) using fractional integration techniques. The empirical results, applying parametric approaches, provide evidence of mean reversion in the REERs in the cases of Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica, Guyana and Paraguay and lack of it for the remaining seven countries. Employing semiparametric methods, the evidence of mean reversion covers the following countries: Belize, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Mexico. Thus, only for Belize and Guyana do we obtain consistent evidence of mean reversion in the real exchange rates. At the other extreme, lack of mean reversion, and thus, lack of PPP, is obtained with both methods in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. For the remaining six countries, the results are ambiguous. The results for the PPP theory in Belize and Guyana may show the importance of promoting policies based on exchange rate flexibility and economic liberalization to reach a long-run stability scenario that leads to greater international competitiveness and lower external vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the major developments in the recent literature on exchange rate economics. It is argued that the link between the exchange rate and economic fundamentals is breaking new ground. Evidence indicates that alternative analytical frameworks (such as the new open-economy macroeconomics) and exchange rate arrangements (such as the euro) have their theoretical and analytical elegance, but are proving empirically very difficult to implement. The role of methodological advances and alternative fundamental instruments (such as world commodity prices) is also highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study presents constructed equilibrium exchange rates (EERs) of the euro and its predecessors the European Unit of Account and the European Currency Unit, as well as the euro's member states using a relative version of purchasing power parity (PPP) equilibrium. The revealed patterns of over- and undervaluation demonstrate how well suited the northern member states, in contrast to the southern states, were for the monetary union. Moreover, a relative persistent overvaluation for Greece and Portugal suggests that their ambition to join the euro reduced their competitiveness. The constructed EERs of the euro suggest the European Commission was able to set the initial value of the euro with a high degree of accuracy. Furthermore, the EERs indicate a successive strengthening of the fundamental value of the euro versus the U.S. dollar from 1999 to 2015. The analysis shows a close correlation between the deviations from equilibrium and the events of Greece's sovereign debt crisis. In addition, the presented graphs show strong support for the PPP hypothesis. The results are robust to different constructed EERs and offer a guide to international market participants interested in the general equilibrium path of the euro and its predecessors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces two different non-parametric wavelet-based panel unit-root tests in the presence of unknown structural breaks and cross-sectional dependencies in the data. These tests are compared with a previously suggested non-parametric wavelet test, the parameteric Im-Pesaran and Shin (IPS) test and a Wald type of test. The results from the Monte Carlo simulations clearly show that the new wavelet-ratio tests are superior to the traditional tests both in terms of size and power in panel unit-root tests because of its robustness to cross-section dependency and structural breaks. Based on an empirical Central American panel application, we can, in contrast to previous research (where bias due to structural breaks is simply disregarded), find strong, clear-cut support for purchasing power parity (PPP) in this developing region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we apply the Quantile unit root test and revisit the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 20 African countries using real effective exchange rates over the period 1971Q1 to 2012Q4. While traditional unit root tests fail to reject unit root hypothesis in most of the countries, results from Quantile unit root test reject unit root null hypothesis in Ghana, Mauritius, Niger, South Africa, and Togo, providing support for the PPP at least in these five countries. We further estimate the half-life based on Quantile autoregressive (QAR) model to be about 4.57-7.96 quarters (1-2 year). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents theoretical arguments for a nonlinear pass-through relationship for import and export prices and investigates the relationship empirically. The theoretical argument is based on the menu-cost approach in which small absolute changes in exchange rates may not prompt price changes because the costs of doing so exceed the extra profits generated for firms involved in international trade. This relationship is investigated empirically using quarterly data for the period 1979q1-2015q1 for a sample of 17 countries. In the case of import prices, evidence is found of nonlinear adjustment consistent with the theoretical model in 4 out of 17 cases. In the case of export prices, such a relationship is only evident for two economies in the sample. However, for both the import and export price cases, a significant positive nonlinear relationship is found for the two largest economies in the sample, i.e. the United States and Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of six different univariate unit root tests to real effective exchange rates of 23 OECD countries supports their stationarity or Purchasing Power Parity theory (PPP) only in five countries, a result consistent with previous research that is known as PPP puzzle. However, descriptive statistics of each effective rate reveals a clear sign of non-normal distribution. To account for this, we use quantile unit root test which allows impact of different shocks to be realized at different quantiles. When we applied this new test to the same rates, number of countries in which PPP is supported increased to 16. Apparently, incorporating effects of shocks improves testing efficiency and provides more support for the PPP and reduces the severity of the puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We suggest a Monte Carlo simulation-based unit root test of the purchasing power parity theory for Latin American countries. Under the null hypothesis, we use a Markov regime-switching (MS) model with unit root in the conditional location and MS volatility dynamics. Under the alternative hypothesis, the proposed test incorporates Markov regime-switching autoregressive moving average (MS-ARMA) plus MS volatility dynamics. Under both the null and alternative hypotheses, one of the volatility models estimated is Beta-t-EGARCH, which is a recent dynamic conditional score volatility model. We use data on real effective exchange rate time series for 14 Latin American countries. For each country, we estimate by Monte Carlo simulation the critical values of the unit root test. We provide an economic discussion of the unit root test results and also study the robustness of MS-ARMA plus MS volatility with respect to smooth transition autoregressive models with Fourier function. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the relative purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis using the data from the Korean won–US dollar and the Korean won–Japanese yen foreign exchange markets. We extract proxies for inflation from stock market returns of Korea, the United States and Japan based on the method used by Chowdhry, Roll and Xia in 2005. We explicitly test the relative PPP hypothesis in light of the short-run price volatility using monthly, bimonthly and quarterly data from 1 January 1998 to 31 December 2012. Our findings suggest that the empirical test results from the entire sample period do not support the relative PPP hypothesis. However, the results from the sample period excluding the Asian Financial Crisis period show that the relative PPP hypothesis holds for the Korean won–US dollar market with a moderate magnitude of inflation impact, but not for the Korean won–Japanese yen market. Abrupt changes in exchange rates during the crisis period may have affected the relationship between inflation and exchange rates. This result also suggests that factors other than inflation might have affected the Korean won–Japanese yen exchange rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the time-series properties of 13 Asian real exchange rates (RERs) vis-à-vis the US dollar. The half-life point estimates drawn from the local-persistent model are all less than 2 years, with a finite upper bound. There is no evidence to indicate that the Asian financial crisis has altered the speed of the purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustments. We find that the persistence of RERs over the last three decades remains unchanged in majority of the cases. Given the fairly rapid speed of adjustments and their corresponding confidence intervals, we conclude that the PPP puzzle does not exist in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We propose aTimexstrategy for reducing the foreign exchange risk associated with international equity investment, pertaining to countries with currencies correctly or undervalued by the standard of PPP. The performance ofTimexis examined from the perspectives of eight developed nations with long histories of free-floating currencies. Based on the data from 1986:Q1 to 2014:Q4, we find unambiguous evidence for the superior performance ofTimexin the foreign exchange market. Compared with the passive diversification strategy and the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World index,Timexoffers higher total returns and risk-adjusted total returns when rebalanced every 6 or 12 months for investors based in all eight countries under study. When rebalanced at a 3-year interval,Timexoutperforms the passive diversification and the MSCI World index for five and all eight countries, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we test three popular versions of the monetary model (flexible price, forward-looking and real interest differential models) for the OECD member countries by applying Johansen cointegration technique. Based on country-by-country analysis, we conclude that monetary models do not provide the expected results. We reveal several shortcomings of the models and examine the building blocks of the fundamental version. Although researchers always blame the deviations from purchasing power parity as the reason for the failure of the monetary model, our analysis indicates that invalidity of Keynesian money demand function is also responsible for unfavourable results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study revisits Purchasing Power Parity theory (PPP) in the 34 OECD countries during January 1994–August 2013. We use a new panel stationary test with both sharp breaks and smooth shifts, a novel approach to panel unit-root testing, proposed by Bahmani–Oskooeeet al. (2014). The results indicate that the PPP holds in half of the 34 OECD countries. These results indicate the importance of proper modelling of both sharp breaks and smooth shifts in real effective exchange rate series of OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose the grouped coefficients estimator to reduce bias in dynamic panels with smallTthat have a multilevel structure to the coefficient and factor loading heterogeneity. If groups are chosen such that the within-group heterogeneity is small, then the grouped coefficients estimator can lead to substantial bias reduction compared to pooled GMM dynamic panel estimators. We also propose using a Wald test that can be used to assess whether pooled estimators suffer from heterogeneity bias. We illustrate the usefulness of grouped coefficients with an application to labour demand in which the coefficients are grouped by sub-sector. Our results suggest that the standard pooled estimates are substantially biased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out to examine the degree of persistence in the real exchange rates of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, and tests the validity of Purchasing power parity (PPP) using monthly data covering 1995:01–2013:12 period. The sum of autoregressive (AR) coefficients is used in order to examine persistence of the real exchange rate series and grid-bootstrap method is employed for the confidence intervals. The tests performed suggest two results: (1) Covering the full sample and sub-sample periods, excluding Kyrgyzstan in 1995:01–1998:07 and Russia in 2008:09–2013:12 periods, disregarding the structural breaks in the data generating process, there is high persistency in real exchange rates; (2) there is evidence in support of PPP covering the full sample for every country except for Kyrgyzstan in 1995:01–1998:07 and Russia in 2008:09–2013:12 periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we show the interrelation of the purchasing power parity and the uncovered interest rate parity between the US and Germany for the recent period running from 1999:01 to 2014:04. This study extends the literature by testing both hypotheses simultaneously in a multivariate ECM. This has the advantage that interactions between capital and goods markets can be considered simultaneously. Our finding of two long-run relationships between the variables shows that a disequilibrium in one of the two markets leads to a disequilibrium in the other. While analysing the reaction to cumulative shocks, we show that US variables have a greater impact on German variables than vice versa. Therefore, the rising importance of the euro and the increased integration of the European Union in the recent decade have not changed this relation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We make use of a data-set with both long span and high frequency to test for purchasing power parity (PPP) while allowing for a structural shift in the volatility of the Mexico–US bilateral real exchange rate (RER). The Kim, Leybourne and Newbold (2002) unit root test, robust to changes in the innovation variance, indicates mean stationarity of the monthly RER, and hence evidence of PPP, for the full sample, 1930–2012, and various subsamples. The persistence of deviations of the real rate from its PPP level as measured by half-lives ranges from 1.37 to 2.41 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the stochastic income convergence within the EU-15. The empirical analysis uses per capita GDP, in PPP and in constant prices of 2005 for the period 1950 to 2010. Apart from the traditional DF type tests we also account for possible structural changes. In this direction, we employ the Zivot-Andrews (1992) and the Lee-Strazicich (1999, 2003) testing procedures, for one and two breaks, endogenously determined. Furthermore, we apply the Carlino and Mills (1993) methodology proposed for the detection of β-convergence. The overall evidence supports the existence of two discrete clubs, the first by the ‘cohesion countries’ (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) and the second by the remaining members. In particular, there is a clear evidence of convergence within each club, whereas between clubs there is a luck of catching-up effects. Furthermore, investigation of correlation between relative per capita GDP of each country and several factors that are often identified as growth stimulants, namely Total Factor Productivity, FDI, investment and openness confirm, with the exception of Greece, a strong association between these factors and the convergence process. However, progress in the convergence has not been uniform across countries and over time, reflecting the specific interactions between domestic and international factors and their impact on the convergence process of individual countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Measuring deviations from purchasing power parity has been the subject of extensive investigation. The most common practice in empirical research for measuring real exchange rate persistence is to estimate univariate autoregressive (AR) time series models and calculate the half-life, defined as the number of periods for a unit shock to a time series to decay by 50%. In the presence of structural change, there are two potential biases in the parameter estimates of AR models: (1) a downward small sample median-bias and (2) an upward bias, which occurs when structural change is present and ignored. We conduct a variety of Monte Carlo simulations and demonstrate that the existence of structural change causes a substantial increase in the small sample bias documented in Andrews (1993). We then propose an extension of median-unbiased estimation, which explicitly accounts for structural change, and apply these methods to estimate half-lives of several long-horizon real exchange rates analysed by Lothian and Taylor (1996) and Taylor (2002). The upward bias from neglecting structural change dominates the downward median-bias for these real exchange rates. When structural change is present and accounted for, the median-unbiased half-lives towards a changing mean decrease and the confidence intervals tighten. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the macro variables that are included in most models is the exchange rate. Overall performance of a country’s exchange rate is measured by changes in nominal or real effective exchange rate (REER). These rates are constructed and published mostly for industrial countries by international organizations. Less developed countries have received little attention. In this article, the two rates are constructed for 21 African countries using quarterly data over the period 1971Q1–2012Q4. As an application, we use the REERs to show that even in Africa the movements of the real effective rates follow a nonlinear path. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines and solves an interesting paradox in the literature that the tests for purchasing power parity (PPP) based on the yen real exchange rates (RERs) refute the PPP hypothesis more often than those with other major currency-based RERs, and the evidence is sensitive to the sample period used. Using a new empirical methodology accounting for both nonlinearity and multiple smooth temporary breaks in the data, we show that the puzzling finding is due to the failure to take into account the long but temporary large rise and fall in the yen RERs. The results illustrate that the yen RERs in the post-Bretton Woods period are likely mean reverting with linear or nonlinear adjustment toward large, long swing type of infrequent smooth temporary changes around constant equilibrium values, supporting the validity of PPP and resolving the paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies the Sequential Panel Selection Method (SPSM), proposed by Chortareas and Kapetanios (2009) to test the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP) in a sample of 15 Latin American countries using monthly data spanning from December 1994 to February 2010. SPSM classifies the whole panel into a group of stationary and nonstationary series. In doing so, we can clearly identify how many and which series in the panel are stationary processes. Empirical results from the SPSM using the Panel KSS unit root test (Ucar and Omay, 2009) with a Fourier function which accounts for any structural break in the data indicate that PPP holds in many of the Latin American countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article empirically investigates the effect of international trade on the deviation of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) law and on the international economic deepening in four developed countries (Japan, USA, UK and France), and three Asian developing ones (South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia), using International Financial Statistics (IFS) data issued by International Monetary Fund (IMF). Our results show that in some developed countries the imbalance effect of balance of payments is significant for both international deepening and deviation from PPP, and in some developing countries the volume effect of balance of payments is significant for international deepening. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study applies a simple and powerful nonlinear rank test, proposed by Breitung (2001) to test the validity of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in a sample of East Asian countries over the period March 1985–September 2008. The empirical results indicate that PPP holds for all of East Asian countries studied and the nominal exchange rate, domestic Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the US CPI are all linearly interrelated with the exception of China. Our results have important policy implications for these East Asian countries under study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Standard unit root tests are not very powerful in drawing conclusions regarding the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Rather than asking whether PPP holds throughout the whole sample period, we examine, in this study, if PPP holds sometimes by employing Hamilton-type (1989) Markov regime switching models. When at least one of multiple regimes is stationary, PPP holds locally within the regime. There are indeed various reasons that we should expect that the persistence of real exchange rates changes over time. Employing five real exchange rates spanning more than 100 years, we find herein strong evidence that the strength of PPP varies during the sample periods and that there exist stationary regimes in which PPP holds. Throughout the article, we also make comparisons to previous Markov regime switching estimation results by Kanas (2006) on the same data series. The new Markov switching model selection criterion of Smith et al. (2006), which is devised especially for discriminating Markov regime switching models, unambiguously indicates a preference for the Hamilton-type Markov regime switching model employed in this study. We also find that the evidence for PPP is not much different across different nominal exchange rate arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines prices for 32 identical menu items sold by restaurant franchises operating on both sides of the border between El Paso in the US and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico from July 1997 to June 2008. The relationship between Real Exchange Rate (RER) volatility and the degree of price convergence is examined within a panel data context. The city-pair and goods selected provide a unique experiment in which distance, tradability and industry considerations are set aside and the extent of RER volatility is the only factor to influence price convergence. We find nonmonotonic relationships between mean reversion and RER volatility: very fast adjustments for both low and high volatility panels of goods (between 1 and 2 months) and slower half-lives (between 3 and 4 months) at moderate levels of uncertainty. These figures are, however, substantially smaller than the 6 or 7 months reported in previous research for general US–Mexico goods, suggesting the very strong price convergence observed along the US–Mexican border. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using median-unbiased estimation based on Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) regressions, recent research has questioned the validity of Rogoff's ‘remarkable consensus’ of 3–5 year half-lives of deviations from Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). The confidence intervals of these half-life estimates, however, are extremely wide, with lower bounds of about 1 year and upper bounds of infinity. We extend median-unbiased estimation to the Dickey–Fuller Generalized Least Square (DF-GLS) regression of Elliott et al. (1996). We find that combining median-unbiased estimation with this regression has the potential to tighten confidence intervals for the half-lives. Using long-horizon real exchange rate data, we find that the typical lower bound of the confidence intervals for median-unbiased half-lives is just below 3 years. Thus, while previous confidence intervals for median-unbiased half-lives are consistent with virtually anything, our tighter confidence intervals are inconsistent with economic models with nominal rigidities as candidates for explaining the observed behaviour of real exchange rates and move us away from solving the PPP puzzle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study applies stationary test with a Fourier function proposed by Enders and Lee (2004, 2009) to test the validity of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to assess the nonstationary properties of the Real Exchange Rate (RER) for seven Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We find that our approximation has higher power to detect U-shaped breaks and smooth breaks than linear method if the true data generating process of exchange rate is in fact a stationary nonlinear process. We examine the validity of PPP from the nonlinear point of view and provide robust evidence clearly indicating that the PPP holds true for all CEECs. Our findings point out their exchange rate adjustment is mean reversion towards PPP equilibrium values in a nonlinear way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study applies stationary test with a Fourier function proposed by Enders and Lee (2004, 2009) to test the validity of long run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to assess the nonstationary properties of the real exchange rate for 20 African countries. We find that our approximation has higher power to detect U shaped breaks and smooth breaks than linear method if the true data generating process of exchange rate is in fact a stationary nonlinear process. We examine the validity of PPP from the nonlinear point of view and provide robust evidence clearly indicate that PPP holds true for almost African countries. Our findings point out their exchange rate adjustment is mean reversion towards PPP equilibrium values in a nonlinear way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study applies Panel Seemingly Unrelated Regressions (SUR) Kapetanios et al. (Kapetanios–Shin–Snell (KSS), SURKSS) tests, proposed by Wu and Lee (2009), to investigate the properties of long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 15 African countries. The empirical results from the univariate unit root and panel based unit root tests indicate that PPP does not hold for these 15 countries under study. However, Panel SURKSS tests indicate that PPP is valid for four of these 15 countries. These results have important policy implications for these 15 African countries under study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines behaviour of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based Real Exchange Rates (RERs) of the ringgit against the currencies of Malaysia's major trading partners. The empirical results, which are derived from newly developed tests advocated by Lee and Strazicich (LS, 2003) and Narayan and Popp (NP, 2010) that allow for two breaks in the series, provide conflicting results. We obtain weaker support for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) using the Narayan and Popp (2010) test. By truncating the sampling period into two sub-periods, we find that PPP holds for majority of the Malaysia's bilateral exchange rate vis-à-vis its major trading partners during the pre-crisis period. The 1997 currency crisis, however, has weakened the evidence in favour of PPP hypothesis in the strict sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we re-investigate the validity of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) for a sample of 10 East-Asia countries over the period of January 1987 to June 2005, using a recently developed econometric technique of the panel stationary test with multiple structural breaks, proposed by Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. (2005). This test considers multiple structural breaks positioned at different unknown dates and a different number of breaks for each individual. Empirical evidence shows that the PPP holds true for half of 10 East-Asia countries during the research period. Our results have important policy implications for these 10 East-Asia countries under study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using nominal and real exchange rates for Ireland relative to Germany and the UK from 1975 to 2003, this article explores likely sources of nonlinearity in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) relationships and difficulties in employing an I(1)/I(0) econometric framework. Tests for fractional integration and nonlinearity, including random field regression-based procedures, are applied. Results reveal shortcomings in the standard cointegration and smooth transition autoregression approaches to modelling, and point to multiple structural changes models. Such a model for the case of Ireland and Germany suggests that PPP holds not only in the long-run but also in the medium to short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs Hansen's (1995) Covariate Augmented Dickey-Fuller (CADF) test to reexamine the issue of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) using post-Bretton Woods exchange rate data for 20 industrialized countries. Instead of just using a single covariate as in the literature, we implement the test by using Bai and Ng's (2002) method to choose suitable stationary covariates. Our empirical results show that the real exchange rates generally display long-run mean reversion and support PPP, as contrasted with those obtained in Amara and Papell (2006) that less rejections of unit root hypothesis are made with the same test. The panel unit root test suggested by Chang (2004) is also performed to justify our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies threshold cointegration test advanced by Enders and Siklos (2001) to investigate the properties of asymmetric adjustment in long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in 22 selected African countries during the period of January 1980 to December 2003. Although there is evidence of long-run PPP for most African countries, the adjustment mechanism is asymmetric. These results have particularly important policy implications for African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) within a general model of cointegration of linear and nonlinear form. Nonlinear cointegration is tested with rank tests of Breitung (2001). We determine first the order of integration of each variable, using monthly data from the post-Bretton Woods era for G-10 countries. In many cases prices are I(2), whereas all exchange rates are I(1). However, there are several countries that have a price level that linearly cointegrates with the US price level so that this combination is I(1). Overall, we find some, though limited, evidence for nonlinear and also linear cointegration for the weak version of PPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the behaviour of both Common Trend (CT) and transitory components of Real Exchange Rate (RER) fluctuations under the current float. The CT component is in most cases found to be sizeable, albeit its relative importance can vary considerably across major currencies and its estimate can be sensitive to whether or not long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is imposed on the data. Further analysis suggests that both CT and transitory innovations are linked much more to interest rate changes than to productivity changes. Accordingly, it is interest rate, not productivity, disturbances that drive the highly persistent RER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we re-examine the empirical validity of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) theory for the Turkish economy. For this purpose, an empirical model is constructed using some contemporaneous estimation techniques such as multivariate co-integration and vector error correction methodology. Our estimation results reveal that the PPP can strongly be supported as a long-run stationary steady-state relationship for the Turkish economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lopez et al. (2005) demonstrated that single-equation unit-root tests cannot provide conclusive evidence of whether real exchange rates are stationary because inference depends critically on the lag-lengths used to construct the test statistics, a result reinforced by a recent work by Sweeney (2006). The purpose of this article is to revisit the issue, first demonstrating the necessary conditions under which this approach of testing for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis for 16 Less Developed Countries (LDCs), from all over the world, during their fixed and flexible exchange rate experiences over the period 1957:01-1999:12. The main contribution of this article to the empirical literature on PPP is that our study is the first to consider PPP hypothesis on alternative exchange rate regimes for LDCs. The bilateral exchange rates of LDCs and the United States, and their respective price levels are considered. Three different time series methodologies are employed: unit-root tests, Engle-Granger (1987) cointegration technique and Johansen multivariate VAR methodology (1988). The cointegration techniques improve the results, which allows the examination of the more frequent long-run relationship between relative prices and nominal exchange rates. Nevertheless, using each of econometric techniques we find only a few and a nearly equal evidence in favour of PPP under the alternative regimes in LDCs. Hence, the main conclusion of our study is that the deviations from PPP in LDCs cannot be attributed to the exchange rate regime system. Other market regulations should be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to study long-run Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) for a panel of 21 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from the end of the Bretton Woods era by applying a wide range of the econometric techniques available. This will allow us to present a comprehensive up to date examination of the empirical validity of PPP, covering the weak and strong versions of the hypothesis with individual and panel analysis, including the absence or presence of cross-dependency, the linear or nonlinear behaviour of the real exchange rates and the degree of persistence. Overall, the results provide evidence in favour of PPP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitive evidence regarding a rapid mean reversion of the real exchange rate is not present when using standard linear methodology, including unit root tests and fractional integration. To consider the robustness of these results, we use an encompassing model, the Gegenbauer AutoRegressive Moving Average (GARMA) model, which nests as special cases the existing linear methods. The GARMA model accommodates a complete notion of persistence and allows shocks to dissipate slowly in a cyclical manner. We find evidence supporting a weak version of purchasing power parity, where equilibrium errors are long memory with strongly persistent cycles. However, this new form of cyclical mean reversion is likely too slow to be economically meaningful. The inability to find a strong equilibrium attractor process, using a very general encompassing linear methodology provides support for the recent models that allow for a nonlinear attraction process and for shifting real exchange rate equilibria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends the theory of generalized purchasing power parity (G-PPP) by developing a model including foreign variables such as the real money supply, output and interest rate. A cointegration rank test with two structural breaks in the deterministic trend was adopted to selected Asian countries, with Japan as the base country. There were two cointegrating vectors and six common stochastic trends in the model. The cointegrating vectors were estimated by the same approach used by Pesaran et al. (2000). The first cointegrating vector is interpreted as G-PPP, and the second one is interpreted as the extended G-PPP. According to G-PPP, these countries could form a single currency area. The first stochastic trend is primarily driven by Japan's real money supply; the second, third and fourth by the real exchange rates of the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, respectively; the fifth by Japan's output; and the sixth by Japan's government bond yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear exponential smooth transition autoregressive (ESTAR) models are recently very popular in modelling the deviation from purchasing power parity. This article, shows that there is a close relation between the ESTAR models estimated in Taylor et al. (2001) and stochastic unit root (STUR) processes of Granger and Swanson (1997) and McCabe and Tremayne (1995). Also, for a post-Bretton Woods sample period, the real exchange rates from four major countries are tested if they are better described as I(1), ESTAR or STUR processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]