The Great Inflation of the 1970s

The two leading explanations for the poor inflation performance during the 1970s are policy opportunism ( Barro and Gordon 1983 ) and "inadvertently" bad monetary policy ( Clarida, Gali, and Gertler 2000 , Orphanides 2003 ). The main models of the latter category are that of Orphanides (loose monetary policy was the outcome of mis-perceptions about potential output rather than of inflation tolerance) and of Clarida, Gali, and Gertler (weak policy reaction to expected inflation led to indeterminacies). We show that both of these models can account for high and persistent inflation and also have satisfactory overall performance if an exceptionally large decrease in productivity took place at that time.     

HIV/AIDS AND POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA: A BAYESIAN ESTIMATION OF SELECTION MODELS WITH CORRELATED FIXED‐EFFECTS

In this paper, we estimate the causal impact of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) on monetary poverty using a panel database from South Africa. We treat endogeneity and selection problems associated with HIV/AIDS by a selection model that includes correlated fixed effects both in the level and in the participation equations, which are estimated simultaneously via original Bayesian methods. We model the consequences of the illness on both labour income and income transfers, and disentangle between urban and rural households. While no significant impact of HIV/AIDS on labour income is found because of households' recomposition, we find a substantial fall in received transfers among rural population and a dramatic increase in chronic poverty.     

Withering Government Spending Multipliers

The empirical literature has documented a weakening of the consumption and output responses to an increase in government spending during the last 30 years. We show that a New Keynesian model in which real government spending is observed with measurement errors can account for the reduction in the size of government spending multipliers. The model implies—consistent with empirical evidence presented by Ilzetzki, Mendoza, and Vegh (2010)—that the evolution of monetary policy and greater globalization (increasing international trade and decreasing capital controls) are key factors in this development.     

Flexible Prices and the Business Cycle

Business cycles models with flexible prices face two major empirical challenges. One regards observed output dynamics: the positive, short run, autocorrelation in GNP growth, and the hump‐shaped, trend‐reverting output response to transitory shocks ( Cogley and Nason 1995 ). The other regards the alleged persistent decline in employment following a positive technology shock ( Galí 1999 ). No determinate model with flexible prices has so far been able to address all of the Cogley Nason–Galí challenges. We show that the standard RBC model can do so if it contains a signal extraction problem involving permanent and temporary supply shocks.     

Monetary Policy and Inflation in the 70s

An influential paper by Clarida, Galí, and Gertler (2000) has attributed the great inflation of the 1970s to the violation of the Taylor principle in the conduct of U.S. monetary policy (weak, indeterminacy inducing response to expected inflation). We evaluate this thesis in the context of a standard New Keynesian model against a version of the model that incorporates incomplete information learning about the true state of the economy. The likelihood‐based estimation of the model overwhelmingly favors the specification with indeterminacy over the alternatives with determinacy, independent of the presence and size of misperceptions.