Forecasting local inflation in Open Economies: What Can a NOEM Model Do?

Roberto Duncan and Enrique Martínez García ()

No 235, Globalization Institute Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Abstract: This paper provides both theoretical insight as well as empirical evidence in support of the view that inflation is largely a global phenomenon. First, we show that inflation across countries incorporates a significant common factor captured by global inflation. Second, we show that in theory a role for global inflation in local inflation dynamics emerges over the business cycle even without common shocks, and under flexible exchange rates and complete international asset markets. Third, we identify a strong \"error correction mechanism\" that brings local inflation rates back in line with global inflation which explains the relative success of inflation forecasting models based on global inflation (e.g., Ciccarelli and Mojon (2010). Fourth, we argue that the workhorse New Open Economy Macro (NOEM) model of Martnez-Garca and Wynne (2010) can be approximated by a finiteorder VAR and estimated using Bayesian techniques to forecast domestic inflation incorporating all relevant linkages with the rest of the world. This NOEM-BVAR provides a tractable model of inflation determination that can be tested empirically in forecasting. Finally, we use pseudo-out-of-sample forecasts to assess the NOEM-BVAR at different horizons (1 to 8 quarters ahead) across 17 OECD countries using quarterly data over the period 1980Q1-2014Q4. In general, we find that the NOEM-BVAR model produces a lower root mean squared prediction error (RMSPE) than its competitors?which include most conventional forecasting models based on domestic factors and also the recent models based on global inflation. In a number of cases, the gains in smaller RMSPEs are statistically significant. The NOEM-BVAR model is also accurate in predicting the direction of change for inflation, and often better than its competitors along this dimension too.

JEL-codes: E31 F41 F42 F47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49
Date: 2015-04-01, Revised 2022-12-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-for, nep-ifn, nep-mac and nep-mon
Note: A previous version of this paper circulated with the title "Forecasting Local Inflation with Global Inflation: When Economic Theory Meets the Facts."
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:feddgw:235

DOI: 10.24149/gwp235r1

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