Determinants of Inflation in the Euro Area The Role of Labor and Product Market Institutions

While inflation differentials in a monetary union can be benign, reflecting a catch-up process, or an adjustment mechanism to asymmetric shocks or different business cycles, they may also indicate distortions related to inefficiencies in domestic product and labor markets that amplify or make more p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Morsy, Hanan
Other Authors: Jaumotte, Florence
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2012
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 03087nmm a2200505 u 4500
001 EB000925912
003 EBX01000000000000000719508
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 150128 ||| eng
020 |a 9781463933807 
100 1 |a Morsy, Hanan 
245 0 0 |a Determinants of Inflation in the Euro Area  |b The Role of Labor and Product Market Institutions  |c Hanan Morsy, Florence Jaumotte 
260 |a Washington, D.C.  |b International Monetary Fund  |c 2012 
300 |a 36 pages 
651 4 |a Greece 
653 |a Inflation 
653 |a Labor market institutions 
653 |a Labour; income economics 
653 |a Output gap 
653 |a Employment protection 
653 |a Inflation persistence 
653 |a Deflation 
653 |a Production 
653 |a Open Economy Macroeconomics 
653 |a Labor Contracts 
653 |a Particular Labor Markets: General 
653 |a Production; Economic theory 
653 |a Labor 
653 |a Macroeconomics: Production 
653 |a Manpower policy 
653 |a Price Level 
653 |a Labor market 
653 |a Prices 
653 |a Macroeconomics 
653 |a Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles: General (includes Measurement and Data) 
653 |a Production and Operations Management 
700 1 |a Jaumotte, Florence 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b IMF  |a International Monetary Fund 
490 0 |a IMF Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.5089/9781463933807.001 
856 4 0 |u https://elibrary.imf.org/view/journals/001/2012/037/001.2012.issue-037-en.xml?cid=25690-com-dsp-marc  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a While inflation differentials in a monetary union can be benign, reflecting a catch-up process, or an adjustment mechanism to asymmetric shocks or different business cycles, they may also indicate distortions related to inefficiencies in domestic product and labor markets that amplify or make more persistent the impact of shocks on inflation. The paper examines the determinants of inflation differentials in the euro area, with emphasis on the role of country specific labor and product market institutions. The analysis uses a traditional backward-looking Phillips curve equation and augments it to explore the role of collective bargaining systems, union density, employment protection, and product market regulation. The model is estimated over a panel dataset of 10 euro area countries over the period 1983-2007. Results show that high employment protection, intermediate coordination of collective bargaining, and high union density increase the persistence of inflation. Oil and raw materials price shocks are also more likely to be accommodated by wage increases when the degree of coordination in collective bargaining is intermediate. These results are robust to different estimation methods, model specifications, and outliers. The paper suggests that reforming labor market institutions may improve the functioning of the euro area by reducing the risk of persistent inflation differentials