Korean inflation during the US military administration of 1945-1948: a further analysis

Abstract

This paper investigates the dynamic process of Korean inflation under the US military administration using a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) incorporating cointegration relations among the variables. The results show that government expenditure shocks are primarily responsible for price movements together with money demand shocks having noticeable short-run impacts. The study also shows that government expenditure shocks are the most important source of fluctuations in each of the other variables investigated. The paper concludes that a reform of fiscal and monetary system is necessary to stop the sustaining process of inflation as well as fluctuations in other macro-variables.