September 1990

Estimating Pass-Through: Structure and Stability

William R. Melick

Abstract:

This paper estimates the pass-through relationship between exchange rates and import prices for the United States using recursive techniques across a variety of specifications to examine structural and coefficient stability in a systematic fashion. Results of estimations: 1) indicate that pass-through at the macroeconomic level is a complicated amalgamation of disparate industrial structures that involves more than one long-run equilibrium relationship between the variables of interest, and 2) call into question the prevailing wisdom that foreign firms changed their pricing behavior in light of the large appreciation in the exchange value of the dollar in the early 1980s.

PDF: Full Paper

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Last Update: March 05, 2021