Enzo Rossi | Searcharxiv

arXiv2022

What Drives Inflation and How: Evidence from Additive Mixed Models Selected by cAIC

We analyze the forces that explain inflation using a panel of 122 countries from 1997 to 2015 with 37 regressors. 98 models motivated by economic theory are compared to a gradient boosting algorithm, non-linearities and structural breaks are considered. We show that the typical estimation methods are likely to lead to fallacious policy conclusions which motivates the use of a new approach that we propose in this paper. The boosting algorithm outperforms theory-based models. We confirm that energy prices are important but what really matters for inflation is their non-linear interplay with energy rents. Demographic developments also make a difference. Globalization and technology, public debt, central bank independence and political characteristics are less relevant. GDP per capita is more relevant than the output gap, credit growth more than M2 growth.

stat.AP↗

arXiv2021

Estimating the Effect of Central Bank Independence on Inflation Using Longitudinal Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation

The notion that an independent central bank reduces a country's inflation is a controversial hypothesis. To date, it has not been possible to satisfactorily answer this question because the complex macroeconomic structure that gives rise to the data has not been adequately incorporated into statistical analyses. We develop a causal model that summarizes the economic process of inflation. Based on this causal model and recent data, we discuss and identify the assumptions under which the effect of central bank independence on inflation can be identified and estimated. Given these and alternative assumptions, we estimate this effect using modern doubly robust effect estimators, i.e., longitudinal targeted maximum likelihood estimators. The estimation procedure incorporates machine learning algorithms and is tailored to address the challenges associated with complex longitudinal macroeconomic data. We do not find strong support for the hypothesis that having an independent central bank for a long period of time necessarily lowers inflation. Simulation studies evaluate the sensitivity of the proposed methods in complex settings when certain assumptions are violated and highlight the importance of working with appropriate learning algorithms for estimation.

econ.EM↗