Fourth Quarter 1994
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

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Would the Addition of Bond or Equity Funds Make M2 a Better Indicator of Nominal GDP?
John V. Duca

John Duca assesses the possibility that adding bond mutual funds, equity mutual funds, or both to M2 would improve this monetary aggregate's ability to forecast nominal GDP growth. He finds that M2B (M2 plus bond funds) and M2+ (M2 plus bond and stock funds) are statistically significant in explaining past nominal GDP growth. Duca further shows that M2B and M2+ each yield better forecasts of nominal GDP growth since 1990 than does M2, but to a lesser extent when the federal funds rate and the ten-year Treasury note yield are included in his forecasting model. Because bond and equity mutual funds are less directly influenced by the Federal Reserve than M2, Duca cautions that, relative to M2, M2B and M2+ are likely to be less controllable by the Federal Reserve.

Given these findings, Duca argues that M2B and M2+ show promise as information variables that the Federal Reserve may use along with other economic indicators in setting monetary policy. Recent forecast results and anecdotal information suggest that if equity funds continue to become more substitutable for nontransactions deposits, M2+ may prove to be increasingly helpful in this capacity.

Understanding the Price Puzzle
Nathan S. Balke and Kenneth M. Emery

Recent developments in measuring the stance of monetary policy have highlighted an interesting puzzle--namely, that an unexpected tightening in monetary policy leads to an increase rather than a decrease in the price level. In this article, Nathan Balke and Kenneth Emery present evidence on the price puzzle and discuss possible explanations for it.

Balke and Emery find that the most plausible explanation is that, during the 1960s and '70s, monetary policy was not implemented in a way that fully offset inflationary supply shocks. During this period, monetary policy would tighten in response to a supply shock but not by enough to prevent inflation from rising. In the data, therefore, contractionary policy is positively correlated with inflation. Since the early 1980s, however, the price puzzle has disappeared for either one, or both, of two reasons: the Federal Reserve has placed greater emphasis on achieving price stability, or there have been fewer inflationary supply shocks to the economy.

Indicators of the General Price Level and Inflation
Zsolt Becsi

This article examines whether price indexes, such as the CPI, the PPI, and the implicit price deflator for GDP (PGDP), tell a consistent story about the general price level and inflation rate. To this end, Zsolt Becsi analyzes the time series properties of these indexes. He finds that the PGDP has a stable long-term relationship with both of the other price indexes. Some evidence suggests that PGDP and CPI inflation have common long-run trends, while PPI inflation has no discernible stable long-run relationship with either PGDP or CPI inflation.

Some theories suggest that the price level relevant for monetary policy is broader than price indexes of final goods and services such as the PGDP. This article investigates whether the PGDP captures movements in other price or inflation series. There is weak evidence that the PGDP shares common trends with the price levels and inflation rates of some intermediate goods and assets. Overall, these results suggest that PGDP makes a good indicator of the general price level for monetary policy because it reflects shocks to a broad range of other series.