But researchers are reporting that food?inflation?is also partly caused by producers, especially large firms, putting up prices to increase their profits. Sellers can do this if they know that a buyer has no choice but to pay more to obtain things they cannot do without, such as food and fuel — a phenomenon that researchers call sellers’?inflation. That might be one reason that?inflation?remains?stubbornly high, especially when it comes to food, and that interventions such as raising interest rates have failed to reduce it.

但研究人員報(bào)告說(shuō)，食品價(jià)格上漲的部分原因是生產(chǎn)商，尤其是大公司，通過(guò)提高價(jià)格來(lái)增加利潤(rùn)。如果賣家知道買家別無(wú)選擇，只能花更多的錢來(lái)獲得他們離不開(kāi)的東西，比如食物和燃料，他們就會(huì)這么做——研究人員將這種現(xiàn)象稱為賣家通脹。這可能是通脹居高不下的原因之一，尤其是在食品方面，而加息等干預(yù)措施未能降低通脹。

This is the conclusion of two working papers led by Isabella Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In a modelling study published last November, Weber and her co-authors found that the prices of food and energy are the two largest drivers of?inflation?(I. M. Weber et al.?Economics Department Working Paper Series 340; 2022). In a?subsequent?study, in February, the authors?sampled a group of US companies in these?sectors and discovered that in 2022, profits were?responsible?for as much?inflation?as?wages, if not more (I. M. Weber and E. Wasner?Economics Department Working Paper Series 343; 2023).

這是馬薩諸塞大學(xué)阿姆赫斯特分校(University of Massachusetts Amherst)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家伊莎貝拉?韋伯(Isabella Weber)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的兩篇工作論文得出的結(jié)論。在去年11月發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)模型研究中，韋伯和她的合著者發(fā)現(xiàn)，食品和能源價(jià)格是通貨膨脹的兩個(gè)最大驅(qū)動(dòng)因素。經(jīng)濟(jì)系工作文件系列340;2022)。在今年2月的一項(xiàng)后續(xù)研究中，作者對(duì)這些行業(yè)的一組美國(guó)公司進(jìn)行了抽樣調(diào)查，發(fā)現(xiàn)到2022年，利潤(rùn)對(duì)通脹的影響與工資一樣大，甚至更大(I. M. Weber和E. Wasner Economics Department Working Paper Series 343;2023)。

Weber’s work is?sparking change among some governments and getting attention from?financial?institutions. The International?Monetary?Fund?found last month that corporate profits accounted for nearly half of?inflation?in the euro area last year (N.-J. H. Hansen et al. IMF Working Paper No. 2023/131; 2023).

韋伯的研究在一些政府中引發(fā)了變革，并引起了金融機(jī)構(gòu)的關(guān)注。國(guó)際貨幣基金組織(International Monetary Fund)上個(gè)月發(fā)現(xiàn)，去年歐元區(qū)企業(yè)利潤(rùn)占通脹的近一半。H. Hansen等人?；鸾M織第2023/131號(hào)工作文件;2023)。