Delivering endogenous inertia in prices and output

This paper presents a DGE model in which aggregate price level inertia is generated endogenously by the optimizing behavior of price-setting firms. All the usual sources of inertia are absent here i.e., all firms are simultaneously free to change their price once every period and face no adjustment costs in doing so. Despite this, the model generates persistent movements in aggregate output and inflation in response to a nominal shock. Two modifications of a standard one-quarter pre-set pricing model deliver these results: learning-by-doing and habit formation in leisure. While the model delivers persistence, simulations based on estimated shocks to tfp and money growth suggest both output and inflation are too volatile relative to the data and fail to closely follow the historical time series.     

Nominal inertia and shock persistence in UK business cycles

A structural VAR methodology is used for UK data to identify and map out the effects of innovations in the money supply, employment, output, wages and prices. Moreover, bands of two standard errors are computed for the impulse response functions so that comment may be made on the significance of the dynamic responses of the variables to the simulated shocks. This allows conclusions to be drawn on the persistence of shocks. Results suggest that output variation is largely determined by aggregate demand shocks over the business cycle frequency. Importantly, evidence is also found of rigidities in the form of price inertia and nominal wage stickiness.     

Indivisibility,irreversibility, and the demand for consumer durables

A deeper understanding of the volatility of expenditures on consumer durables is sought in the properties of those goods and the transactions by which they are acquired: durability, indivisibility, and irreversibility. When these properties constrain optimization we find: 1) variation in the lengths of endogenously determined replacement cycles rather than stock-level adjustments may account for much of the volatility, 2) the qualitative nature of an individual consumer's response to a shock depends on the age of his existing unit relative to its optimal replacement age when the shock occurs, 3) the aggregate distribution of unit ages relative to their optimal replacement ages conditions the aggregate response to shocks, and 4) shocks actually change that distribution. A simple aggregation methodology is demonstrated which depicts exaggerated aggregate reactions to shocks.     

Shock Persistence and Stochastic Trends in Australian Aggregate Output and Consumption*

The distinction between transitory and permanent shocks is at the centre of the debate on which class of models is best suited to represent economic variables: stationary models around a deterministic trend, or stationary models around a stochastic trend The debate u here focused on the Australian case. It is found that both aggregate output and consumption are characterized by stochastic trends, but without a transitory component This corresponds to a measure of shock persistence equal to one for both variables. For the specific case of aggregate output, this result may be interpreted as indicating the absence of business cycles     

Final Energy Demand in Portugal: How Persistent it is and Why it Matters for Environmental Policy

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to examine the degree of persistence in final energy demand in Portugal. Our results suggest that when structural breaks are accounted for, aggregate energy demand and all of its components are stationary. Accordingly, the response to shocks is not permanent. We find, however, strong levels of persistence. Demand for electricity is the most persistent component of aggregate demand while the levels of persistence for petroleum and gas are similar and close to the aggregate level. In turn, demand for coal and biomass are also similar and the least persistent. These results have important implications for the design of macroeconomic policies. Indeed, high persistent levels mean that temporary energy shocks translate into persistent changes in energy demand and thereby in less transient shocks to the overall economy. These results are also important for the design of environmental policies. The fact that energy demand is highly persistent means that the effects of environmental policies will tend to be long lasting. Also, the relatively high persistence of electricity, gas and petroleum and the fact that their levels of persistence are similar suggests that fuel switching policies involving these fuels will be relatively easy to implement.     

不确定性、通货膨胀与产出增长

基于中国1952—2004年的数据,通过GARCH-M模型和广义脉冲响应函数对不确定性、通货膨胀与产出增长进行实证分析。结果发现:通货膨胀不确定性与产出增长负相关;产出增长不确定性与产出增长负相关;产出增长不确定性与通货膨胀正相关;通货膨胀不确定性与通货膨胀负相关;产出增长冲击和通货膨胀冲击对产出增长不确定性和通货膨胀不确定性的影响存在滞后性和非对称性;产出增长对产出增长冲击的动态响应最大,通货膨胀对产出增长冲击的动态响应以及产出增长对通货膨胀冲击的动态响应最小,通货膨胀对通货膨胀冲击的动态响应居中。     

Employment responses to aggregate and sectoral technology shocks

This paper investigates the responses of sectoral employment in US manufacturing to a technology shock by its type: aggregate or sectoral. In order to distinguish between aggregate and sectoral shocks, we construct independent VAR models for identifying each shock separately: a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) for aggregate shocks and a sectoral SVAR for sectoral shocks. Our aggregate model in particular extends the conventional small-scale VAR to the FAVAR framework of Bernanke et al. (2005) so that it can address the potential bias from omitted variables. The main findings are as follows: most industries exhibit negative employment responses to an aggregate technology shock while exhibiting positive responses to a sectoral technology shock. By comparing our FAVAR framework with Chang and Hong’s (2006) small-scale VAR, we show that applying the FAVAR results in significant differences in the estimated responses to an aggregate technology shock. Real rigidities (such as slow diffusion of new technology or frictional labor reallocation), rather than nominal rigidities (such as sticky prices), are crucial in accounting for the cross-industry difference in employment responses. In particular, the slow diffusion of new technology is closely related to the sluggish response of sectoral employment.     

Labor Market Dynamics and the Business Cycle: Structural Evidence for the United States*

We use a 12‐dimensional VAR to examine the aggregate effects of two structural technology shocks and two policy shocks. For each shock, we examine the dynamic effects on the labor market, the importance of the shock for labor market volatility, and the comovement between labor market variables and other key aggregate variables in response to the shock. We document that labor market indicators display “hump‐shaped” responses to the identified shocks. Technology shocks and monetary policy shocks are important for labor market volatility but the ranking of their importance is sensitive to the VAR specification. The conditional correlations at business cycle frequencies are similar in response to the four shocks, apart from the correlations between hours worked, labor productivity and real wages. To account for the unconditional correlations between these variables, a mixture of shocks is required.     

THE TIME‐SERIES PROPERTIES OF UK INFLATION: EVIDENCE FROM AGGREGATE AND DISAGGREGATE DATA

This paper contrasts the time‐series properties of aggregate and disaggregate UK inflation. While aggregate inflation is found to be non‐stationary, unit root rejection frequencies are increasing when we use more disaggregate data. Structural break analysis suggests that structural shifts in monetary policy could alter inflation persistence. Additionally, panel evidence indicates that the unit root hypothesis can be rejected for sectoral inflation rates. Finally, we compare the persistence properties of UK inflation, finding statistically significant differences between aggregate and disaggregate series. Our analysis suggests that aggregation matters, which has important implications for econometric analysis and the conduct of monetary policy.     

Inequality and the business cycle: evidence from U.S. survey data

ABSTRACT

We study the effects of macroeconomic shocks on measures of economic inequality obtained from U.S. survey data. To identify aggregate supply, aggregate demand, and monetary policy shocks, we estimate vector autoregressions and impose sign and zero restrictions on impulse response functions. We find that the effects of the macroeconomic shocks on inequality depend on the type of shock as well as on the measure of inequality considered. Contractionary monetary policy shocks increase expenditure and consumption inequality, whereas income and earnings inequality are less affected. Adverse aggregate supply and demand shocks increase income and earnings inequality, but reduce expenditure and consumption inequality. Our results suggest that different channels dominate in the transmission of the shocks. The earnings heterogeneity channel is consistent with the inequality dynamics after monetary policy shocks, but it appears to be less crucial when the economy is hit by either aggregate supply or aggregate demand shocks. Using variance decompositions, we find that although the macroeconomic shocks account for large shares of the variation in the macroeconomic variables, their contributions to the dynamics of the inequality measures are limited.     

The persistence of regional unemployment: evidence from China

The purpose of this paper is to examine the persistence of regional unemployment and to explore the sources of this persistence. Evidence from China suggests three empirical findings. First, provincial relative unemployment is more persistent than aggregate unemployment. Second, youth unemployment is less persistent than total unemployment. Third, although the western region has the highest provincial unemployment rate, it has the lowest persistence of regional unemployment. To explore the sources of this unemployment persistence, a panel data method has been developed based on the Barro Approach and Edwards work. The higher the share of industry output by state sector and collective sector, the more the regional unemployment persistence. The private sector is the main employment destination for jobless now and has acted to reduce unemployment persistence.     

Aggregation, Persistence and Volatility in a Macro Model

We introduce firm heterogeneity into the standard monopolistically competitive real business cycle (RBC) model. The fundamental equilibrium path is derived and the time–series properties of aggregate GDP are studied analytically. Although firms' productivities are subject to temporary shocks, the aggregate process displays a surprising novel form of nonlinearity and long memory which had not been built into the model at the outset. This aggregate GDP turns out to have very different properties from log–linear time–series models such as auto–regressive (AR) models and their extensions. It displays very strong persistence, which ends abruptly with a sudden change of tendency, giving its autocorrelation function (ACF) an S –shape. Although persistent, it is mean–reverting, unlike the everlasting memory of unit–root processes. Its volatility is of a greater order of magnitude than that of any of its components, so small micro–shocks can generate large macro fluctuations. It is also characterized by long, asymmetric cycles of random lengths. Increased monopoly power tends to reduce the amplitude and increase the persistence of business cycles. Strikingly, we find that the empirical ACFs constructed from GDP data for the U.K. and the U.S. display this characteristic S –shape.     

Shocking the eurozone

In this paper, the monetary transmission mechanism within the European Monetary Union is investigated. The impulse response functions and forecast error variance decompositions of a structural vector error correction model (SVECM) are compared with those of a New Keynesian theoretical model. The identifying restrictions of the SVECM are directly derived from the theoretical model. Two permanent shocks are identified, one having only nominal, and one having only real effects. The three transitory shocks comprise a short-term interest-rate shock, an aggregate demand shock and a money demand shock. The main conclusions are that permanently reducing the inflation objective depresses output in the first year, but has no real effects in the long run. Regarding output variability, the results indicate that aggregate demand shocks are most important during the first year, after which aggregate supply shocks dominate.     

总需求和总供给冲击对我国失业和产出动态关系的影响分析

在我国的失业产出关系中,短期内,总供给冲击是产出波动的主要来源,总需求冲击则是失业波动的主要来源,总需求冲击和总供给冲击共同破坏了产出失业之间反向变化关系,但是总需求冲击的破坏作用更多一些。在长期,总需求冲击对产出没有影响,总供给冲击对产出有显著的正的影响,总需求冲击在长期对失业没有影响,但总供给冲击在长期会对失业产生不利影响,即正的供给冲击的累积影响所带来的产出增加在长期使我国的失业率上升。     

Labor market search, sticky prices, and interest rate policies

What accounts for the significant real effects of monetary policy shocks? And what accounts for the persistent and hump shaped responses of output and inflation in response to such shocks? These questions are investigated in a model that incorporates labor market search, habit persistence, sticky prices, and policy inertia. While habit persistence and price stickiness are important for the hump shaped output response and the long, drawn out inflation response, respectively, labor market frictions increase the output response and reduce the inflation response relative to an otherwise similar model based on a Walrasian labor market. Significantly, policy inertia itself is found to be the most important factor in accounting for the magnitude of the output effects of policy shocks in the model.     

Macroeconomic implications of dynamically inconsistent preferences

Despite the widespread use of models of intertemporal choices in economics, previous studies have assumed that intertemporal preferences are dynamically consistent. This paper provides a fresh perspective on propagation mechanisms of a typical macroeconomic shock in a model with dynamically inconsistent preferences. To this end, I develop a prototypical neoclassical model that features dynamically inconsistent preferences to explore dynamic responses of key macro-aggregates, discounted cumulative effects and some characteristics of aggregate fluctuations in response to a technology shock. The main findings reveal that (a) consumption and investment in the proposed model show a larger increase than those in a standard neoclassical model; (b) unlike the standard model, the proposed model yields a short-run decline in labor, which is corroborated by previous studies; (c) all of these dynamic responses in the proposed model deliver smaller cumulative output effects; (d) the proposed model does a reasonably good job of matching key characteristics of aggregate fluctuations with the counterparts observed in the postwar U.S. data. The present-bias and sophistication effects are the linchpin of these main results. Various analyses on a set of different parameter values are also discussed.     

ESTIMATES OF THE AGGREGATE QUARTERLY CAPITAL STOCK FOR THE POST-WAR U.S. ECONOMY

We construct quarterly aggregate gross and net capital stock series for the post-war U.S. economy using annual capital stock, capital depreciation, and capital discard figures along with quarterly investment series. We construct nominal and real measures of all three categories in the aggregate capital stock: consumer durable goods, producer durable goods, and business structures. In constructing the nominal series we take into account the changes in capital goods' prices. The series are constructed using four different methods. Using time- and frequency-domain techniques, we compare the constructed series and characterize their short-run, business cycle, and long-run cyclical properties. We find that the constructed series exhibit very different cyclical and shock persistence dynamics. Practial implications are discussed.     

Skills,sunspots and cycles

This paper explores the ability of a class of one-sector, multi-input models to generate indeterminate equilibrium paths, and endogenous fluctuations, without relying on factors’ hoarding. The model presents a novel theoretical economic mechanism that supports sunspot-driven expansions without requiring upward sloping labor demand schedules. Its distinctive characteristic is that the skill composition of aggregate labor demand drives expansionary i.i.d. demand shocks. Next, the model explains the labor market dynamics from the supply side, while endogenizing the capital productivity response to changes in the aggregate labor demand composition. Last but not least, it is worth to mention that the model presents an effective shock propagation mechanism that operates into the labor market and across labor market segments through the cross elasticities of equilibrium labor demand and supplies.      

中国新凯恩斯菲利普斯曲线研究

本文提出了包含需求拉动、成本推动、通胀预期和通胀惯性四种因素的新凯恩斯菲利普斯曲线模型,该模型推广了Gordon(1996)的三角模型和Gaíland Gertler(1999)的混合模型等经典菲利普斯曲线模型,具有理论上的完整性。本文使用中国数据对所提出的模型进行了检验,其中采用了基于微观调查数据的通胀预期。经验研究结果表明,新凯恩斯菲利普斯曲线模型的最小二乘估计比GMM估计更具有稳健性。在通胀的四个决定因素中,通胀预期对当前通胀的影响最显著,通胀惯性次之,需求拉动排第三,而成本推动的影响不显著。     

Inflation Targeting and Regional Inflation Persistence: Evidence from Korea

The adoption of a credible monetary policy regime such as inflation targeting is known to reduce the persistence of inflation fluctuations. This conclusion, however, is typically derived from aggregate inflation or sectoral inflation rates, not from regional inflation data. This paper studies the regional dimension of inflation targeting; that is, the consequences of inflation targeting for regional inflation persistence. Based on data for Korean cities and provinces it is shown that the adoption of inflation targeting leads: (i) to a fall in inflation persistence at the regional level; and (ii) to a reduction in the cross‐regional heterogeneity in inflation persistence. A factor model lends further support to the role of the common component, and, hence, monetary policy, for regional inflation persistence.