The United States’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) introduces new eligibility requirements for existing USD 7,500 tax-credit provided to electric vehicles. The new requirements condition the credit upon North American final assembly and North American-sourced materials and components. As tensions flare between the US and China, these new local content requirements reflect the US’s effort to establish a supply chain for electric vehicles that circumvents China. The blow, however, is felt elsewhere, namely by South Korean auto makers whose electric vehicle models are no longer eligible for the significant tax-credit necessary to compete in the American market. As South Korea considers submitting a complaint to relevant international bodies, this paper dissects the IRA’s relevant provisions and analyzes the applicability of international trade law rules of the WTO and the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement to the new local content requirements of the IRA.

If the present universe is slightly open then pre-in ation curvature would appear as a cosmic dark-flow component of the CMB dipole moment. We summarize current cosmological constraints on this cosmic dark ow and analyze the possible constraints on parameters characterizing the pre-in ating universe in an in ation model with a present-day very slightly open ΛCDM cosmology. We employ an analytic model to show that for a broad class of in ation-generating effective potentials, the simple requirement that the observed dipole moment represents the pre-in ation curvature as it enters the horizon allows one to set upper and lower limits on the magnitude and wavelength scale of pre-in ation uctuations in the in aton field and the curvature parameter of the pre-in ation universe, as a function of the fraction of the total initial energy density in the in aton field. We estimate that if the current CMB dipole is a universal dark flow (or if it is near the upper limit set by the Planck Collaboration) then the present constraints on ΛCDM cosmological parameters imply rather small curvature Ωk ~ 0:1 for the pre-in ating universe for a broad range of the fraction of the total energy in the in aton field at the onset of in ation. Such small pre-in ation curvature might be indicative of open-in ation models in which there are two epochs of in ation.

In contrast to conventional belief that extended inflation ends when the Universe percolates, we find inflation may continue at least many Hubble times even after the Universe percolates. What is observed is that inflation will not stop unless the global equation of state changes from inflationary one into radiation one. Thus the energy density of shorter wavelength gravitational waves induced by bubble collision at near the end of inflation should be at least Order (102)~O(103) times greater than previous estimation of Turner and Wilcek(TW).

We discuss a model4-dimensional Friedmann cosmology which may have evolved from a model of 4+D dimensions which admits spontaneous compactification of D dimensions (or N-dimensional variants of the Brans-Dicke (BD) theory). The BD parameter appearing in dimensional reduction is negative -1< ω < 0 (for the N-dimensional variants of the BD theory, -1.5≤ω). We find that if there had been inflationary transtion to the standard big-bang model, the Universe can undergoe a polar-type expansion during when the gravitational coupling becomes negative. The unique feature is that for the negative w, the density parameter of the post-inflationary Universe falls in a range 0<0<1 even if the Universe is geometrically flat (k = 0).

The study investigates the impact of inflation rate on economic growth to find the best-fit model for economic growth in Vietnam. The study applied Vector Autoregressive (VAR), cointegration models, and unit root test for the time-series data from 1996 to 2018 to test the inflation impact on the economic growth in the short and long term. The study showed that the two variables are stationary at lag first difference I(1) with 1%, 5% and 10%; trace test indicates two cointegrating equations at the 0.05 level, the INF does not granger cause GDP, the optimal lag I(1) and the variables are closely related as R2 is 72%. It finds that the VAR model’s results are the basis to perform economic growth; besides, the inflation rate is positively related to economic growth. The results support the monetary policy. This study identifies issues for Government to consider: have a comprehensive solution among macroeconomic policies, monetary policy, fiscal policy and other policies to control and maintain the inflation and stimulate growth; set a priority goal for sustainable economic growth; not pursue economic growth by maintaining the inflation rate in the long term, but take appropriate measures to stabilize the inflation at the best-fitted VAR forecast model.

The study investigates the relationship between the inflation rate and economic growth to find out the optimal inflation threshold for economic growth. Therefore, this study applied an ordinary least square model (OLS) and the ordinal regression model, and collected the time-series data from 1996 to 2017 to test the relationship between inflation and economic growth in the short-term and long-term. The sample fits the model and is statistically significant. The study showed that 96.6% of correlation between inflation rate and economic growth are close and 4.5% of optimal inflation threshold is appropriate for economic growth. It finds that the optimal inflation threshold is base to perform economic growth, besides the inflation rate is positively related to economic growth. The results support the monetary policy appropriately. This study identifies issues for Government to consider: have a comprehensive solution among macroeconomic policies, monetary policy, fiscal policy and other policies to control and maintain the inflation and stimulate growth; have appropriate policies to regulate inflation to stimulate economic growth over the long term; set a priority goal for sustainable economic growth; not pursue economic growth by maintaining the inflation rate in the long term, but take appropriate measures to stabilize the inflation at the optimal inflation threshold.

Low inflation and sustainable growth have been the major macroeconomic goals being pursued by every developing country, Vietnam inclusive. The effect of inflation on economic growth has been intensively analyzed by a variety of studies, but the empirical evidence more often than not remains controversial and ambiguous. One common hypothesis of previous studies is that they have assumed that the effect of inflation on growth is symmetric. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the asymmetric effect of inflation and money supply on economic growth using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag approach introduced by Shin, Byungchul, and Greenwood-nimmo (2013) for Vietnam over the period 1990-2017. Empirical results provide evidence that the effects of inflation on economic growth are negative and asymmetric in the long run. The impact of money supply on growth is positive in both the short-run and long-run. Accordingly, the impact of the increase in the inflation rate is bigger than the decreasing in the long-run. This different impact is significant and high inflation will destruct economic activities. As a result, the study provides empirical evidence for the authorities to plan monetary policies and control the rate of inflation to achieve sustainable economic development in the long-run.

This study examines the dynamic linkages between food price inflation and its volatility in the context of Sri Lanka. The empirical evidence derived from the monthly data for the period from 2003M1 to 2017M12 for Sri Lanka. The relationship between inflation rate and inflation volatility has attracted more attention by theoretical and empirical macroeconomists. Empirical studies on the relationship between food inflation and food inflation variability is scarce in the literature. Food price inflation is defined as log difference of food price series. The volatility of a food price inflation is measured by conditional variance generated by the FIGARCH model. Preliminary analysis showed that food inflation is stationary series. Granger causality test reveals that food inflation seems to exert positive impact on inflation variability. We find no evidence for inflation uncertainty affecting food inflation rates. Hence, the findings of the study supports the Friedman-Ball hypothesis in both cases of consumer food price inflation and wholesale food price inflation. This implies that past information on food inflation can help improve the one-step-ahead prediction of food inflation variability but not vice versa. Our results have some important policy implications for the design of monetary policy, food policy thereby promoting macroeconomic stability.

This study intended to examine the relationship between inflation and unemployment rate in Indonesia during 1987 to 2018 period. The study applied a quantitative method using Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) in order to comprehensively understand the causality between inflation and unemployment rates. The data were collected from various main sources including the World Bank, Central Bank of Indonesia, and Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS). The findings showed that inflation has a one-way relationship toward unemployment in Indonesia and it occurs at the third lag. Impulse Response Function (IRF), shows that the inflation rate are fluctuating in response to the shock of unemployment. The unemployment rate responses to shocks from inflation initially increased until it is eventually diminished. It shows that the shocks caused by the impact of inflation were only in the short term. Further, inflation in the three previous lags will have consequences for the unemployment rate in the year. Lastly, both in the long run and short run, unemployment did not affect inflation rates. These findings suggest that high inflation in Indonesia is determined the rising price of basic commodities and fuel. In addition, most companies in Indonesia applying capital intensive so that employment growth in Indonesia is small.

Based on the 2001-2011 forty four quarters macro data, using deductive and inductive thinking does not exclude a significant factor, setting a relatively precise measurement model, and then through empirical framework for co-integration test and SVAR inspection, analysis of long-term and short-term excess liquidity, foreign exchange, economic growth gap, labor costs and the degree of exchange rate movements on domestic inflation. The results showed that: China's current inflation is a key governance is to prevent the economy from overheating, control the scale of investment and hedge foreign exchange.