Publisher:
The University of Utah, Department of Economics, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract:
We propose an unobserved components model with stochastic volatility and structural shocks to explore the relevant factors that influence trend inflation in the USA. Using structural shocks that incorporate a broad set of information for the US economy, we find that four structural shocks have significant effects on trend inflation: productivity, price mark-up, government policy, and finance. During and in the aftermath of the Great Recession, trend inflation became more volatile after incorporating the structural shocks, implying that long-run inflation expectations tended to be less well-anchored in these periods.