The micro elasticity of substitution and non‐neutral technology

This article provides evidence on the micro capital‐labor elasticity of substitution and the bias of technology. Using data on US manufacturing plants, I find several facts inconsistent with a Cobb‐Douglas production function, including large, persistent variation in capital shares. I then estimate the elasticity using variation in local wages, and several instruments for them, for identification. Estimates of the substitution elasticity using all plants range between 0.3 and 0.5, with similar estimates across industries. I use these elasticity estimates to measure labor augmenting productivity, and find that labor augmenting productivity is highly persistent, and correlated with exports, size, and growth.     

Did sunspot forces cause the Great Depression?

We apply a dynamic general equilibrium model to the period of the U.S. Great Depression. In particular, we examine a modification of the real business cycle model in which the possibility of indeterminacy of equilibria arises. In other words, agents’ self-fulfilling expectations can serve as a primary impulse behind fluctuations. We find that the model, driven only by these measured sunspot shocks, can explain well the entire Depression era. That is, the decline from 1929 to 1932, the subsequent slow recovery, and the recession that occurred in 1937-1938.     

Learning,Monetary Policy,and Asset Prices

We explore the stability properties of interest rate rules granting an explicit response to stock prices in a New Keynesian DSGE model where the presence of non‐Ricardian households makes stock prices nonredundant for the business cycle. We find that responding to stock prices enlarges the policy space for which the equilibrium is both determinate and E‐stable (learnable). In particular, the Taylor principle ceases to be necessary, and determinacy/E‐stability is granted also by mildly passive policy rules. Our results appear to be more prominent in economies featuring a lower elasticity of substitution across differentiated products and/or more rigid labor markets.     

Indeterminacy and Forecastability

Recent studies document the deteriorating performance of forecasting models during the Great Moderation, which conversely implies that forecastability was higher in the preceding era when the economy was unexpectedly volatile. We explain this phenomenon in the context of equilibrium indeterminacy in dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. We first analytically show that a model under indeterminacy exhibits richer dynamics that can improve forecastability. Then, using a sticky‐price DSGE model, we numerically demonstrate that indeterminacy arising from passive monetary policy generates persistent dynamics that lead to superior forecastability. We also point out the possibility that forecastability under indeterminacy deteriorates when the degree of uncertainty about sunspot fluctuations is large.     

Reconciling conflicting evidence on the elasticity of intertemporal substitution: A macroeconomic perspective

In this paper we reconcile two opposing views about the elasticity of intertemporal substitution (EIS). Empirical studies using aggregate consumption data typically find the EIS to be close to zero, whereas calibrated models designed to match growth and fluctuations facts typically require it to be close to one. This contradiction is resolved when two kinds of heterogeneity are acknowledged: one, the majority of households do not participate in stock markets; and two, the EIS increases with wealth. We introduce these two features into a standard real business cycle model. First, limited participation creates substantial wealth inequality as in the U.S. data. Consequently, the properties of aggregates directly linked to wealth (e.g., investment and output) are mainly determined by the (high-EIS) stockholders. Since consumption is much more evenly distributed than is wealth, estimation from aggregate consumption uncovers the low EIS of the majority (i.e., the poor).     

Borrowing to Finance Public Investment? The ‘Golden Rule of Public Finance’ Reconsidered in an Endogenous Growth Setting*

In this paper, we look for long‐run and short‐run effects of fiscal deficits on economic growth and welfare in a standard endogenous growth model. We show that, under very general hypotheses, the ‘golden rule of public finance’, which allows a government to run public‐investment‐oriented fiscal deficits, leads to a lower balanced‐growth path in the long run, and eventually in the short run, compared with balanced‐budget rules. Welfare effects are more difficult to assess, and depend on the form of the utility function. Our model shows that debt rules such as the golden rule may improve (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘low’) or weaken (if the consumption elasticity of substitution is ‘high’) intertemporal welfare. Consequently, a balanced‐budget rule does not necessarily dominate debt rules from the point of view of welfare, while it does from the point of view of long‐run economic growth.     

Endogenous Price Stickiness,Trend Inflation,and Macroeconomic Stability

Previous studies show that higher trend inflation is more likely to induce indeterminacy of equilibrium in sticky‐price models based on micro evidence that each period a fraction of prices is kept unchanged. This paper demonstrates that when the degree of price stickiness is endogenously determined in a Calvo model, indeterminacy caused by higher trend inflation is less likely. A key factor for determinacy is the long‐run inflation elasticity of output implied by the New Keynesian Phillips curve. This elasticity declines substantially with higher trend inflation in the case of exogenously given price stickiness, whereas in the case of endogenous price stickiness the decline in the elasticity is mitigated because higher trend inflation leads to a higher probability of price adjustment.     

Equity Returns and Business Cycles in Small Open Economies

This is the first paper in the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium literature to match key business cycle moments and long‐run equity returns in a small open economy with production. These results are achieved by introducing four modifications to a standard real business cycle model: (i) borrowing and lending costs are imposed to increase the volatility of the marginal rate of substitution over time, (ii) capital adjustment costs are assumed to make equity returns more volatile, (iii) GHH preferences are employed to smooth consumption, and (iv) a working capital constraint to generate countercyclical trade balances. Our results are based on data from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.     

Trade, production sharing, and the international transmission of business cycles

Countries that are more engaged in production sharing exhibit higher bilateral manufacturing output correlations. We use data on trade flows between US multinationals and their affiliates as well as trade between the United States and Mexican maquiladoras to measure production-sharing trade and its link with the business cycle. We then develop a quantitative model of international business cycles that generates a positive link between the extent of vertically integrated production-sharing trade and internationally synchronized business cycles. A key assumption in the model is a relatively low elasticity of substitution between home and foreign inputs in the production of the vertically integrated good.     

The Role of Real Wage Rigidity and Labor Market Frictions for Inflation Persistence

We analyze the transmission mechanism of wages to inflation within a New Keynesian business cycle model with wage rigidities and labor market frictions. Our main focus is on the channel of real wage rigidities on inflation persistence for which we find the specification of the wage bargaining process to be of crucial importance. Under the standard efficient Nash bargaining, the feedback of wage rigidities on inflation is ambiguous and depends on other labor market variables. However, under the alternative right‐to‐manage bargaining we find that more rigid wages translate directly into more persistent movements of aggregate inflation.     

Money Supply and Capital Accumulation on the Transition Path Revisited

Fischer (1979) and Asako (1983) analyze the sign of the correlation between the growth rate of money and the rate of capital accumulation on the transition path. Both plug a constant relative risk aversion utility (based on a Cobb–Douglas and a Leontief function, respectively) into Sidrauski's model—yet return contrasting results. The present analysis, by using a more general CES utility, presents both of those settings and conclusions as limiting cases and generates economic figures more consistent with reality (e.g., the interest rate elasticity of the money demands derived from those previous works is necessarily 1 and 0, respectively).     

On the Intertemporal Elasticity of Substitution under Nonhomothetic Utility

In this note, we use a model with nonseparable and nonhomothetic preferences to estimate the intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES). We show that, while the homothetic utility model may induce a bias that increases the elasticity of substitution between nondurables and durables, the estimated IES remains positive and significant.     

Indeterminacy, aggregate demand, and the real business cycle

We show that under indeterminacy aggregate demand shocks are able to explain not only aspects of actual fluctuations that standard RBC models predict fairly well, but also aspects of actual fluctuations that standard RBC models cannot explain, such as the hump-shaped, trend reverting impulse responses to transitory shocks found in US output (Cogley and Nason, Am. Econom. Rev. 85 (1995) 492); the large forecastable movements and comovements of output, consumption and hours (Rotemberg and Woodford, Am. Econom. Rev. 86 (1996) 71); and the fact that consumption appears to lead output and investment over the business cycle. Indeterminacy arises in our model due to capacity utilization and mild increasing returns to scale.     

Durable Goods,Investment Shocks,and the Comovement Problem

Sticky‐price models suggest that capital investment shocks are an important driver of business cycle fluctuations. Despite quantitative importance in explaining business cycles, a comovement problem emerges because the shocks generate intertemporal substitution effects away from consumption toward investment. This paper resolves the problem by extending the standard sticky‐price model to a two‐sector model with consumer durable services. When durable goods are used as investment in capital and consumer durables, positive capital investment shocks also generate intratemporal substitution effects away from consumer durable services toward nondurable consumption that dominates intertemporal effects. Consequently, consumption increases, and the comovement problem is resolved.     

Free entry and business cycles under the influence of animal spirits

We provide a business cycle model in which endogenous markup fluctuations are the main driving force. These fluctuations occur due to some form of ‘animal spirits’, impelling firms in their entry-exit decisions within each sector. By contrast to existing models of the business cycle emphasizing the role of animal spirits, we do not rely on the sink property of the equilibrium to generate indeterminacy. Hence, while our model does pretty well in accounting for the main features of US business cycles, it avoids several criticisms addressed to these former models, concerning either their dependence upon strongly increasing returns, too high markups, or their implication of countercyclical movements of consumption.     

Asset Returns and Labor Supply in a Production Economy

The introduction of an endogenous labor decision represents a challenge for models that seek to jointly explain asset pricing and business cycle facts. This paper shows that several improvements can be made if a standard real business cycle model is augmented with a novel preference specification that increases the stochastic discount factor volatility and simultaneously reduces the wealth elasticity of labor supply.     

Distortionary Taxation, Debt, and the Price Level

This paper compares the determinacy of equilibria under exogenous interest rates in an economy with a cash constraint, in which taxation is lump-sum or distortionary. Under passive fiscal policies lump-sum taxes generate nominal indeterminacy, while with distortionary taxes indeterminacy can be real, but not purely nominal. In general, under distortionary taxation uniqueness of the equilibrium allocation depends on monetary and fiscal policy interactions through taxes, debt, and interest rates. To illustrate this principle, we consider balanced-budget policies under distortionary income taxation and show that a unique equilibrium allocation prevails if interest rates are set consistent with long-run deflation. A separate section extends the analysis to endogenous interest rates.     

Financial constraints,endogenous markups,and self-fulfilling equilibria

Self-fulfilling equilibria and indeterminacy can easily arise in a simple financial accelerator model with reasonable parameter calibrations and without increasing returns in production. A key feature for generating indeterminacy in our model is the countercyclical markup due to the procyclical loan-to-output ratio. We illustrate, via simulations, that our financial accelerator model can generate rich business cycle dynamics, including hump-shaped output in response to demand shocks as well as autocorrelation in output growth rates.     

Inventories and optimal monetary policy in a small open economy

We study how inventory investment affects the design of optimal monetary policy in a New Keynesian small open economy model. We find that under producer currency pricing, when the intratemporal elasticity of substitution is smaller than 1, optimal monetary policy in our model with inventories is similar to a standard model without inventories. However, when the intratemporal elasticity of substitution is larger than 1, inventory investment increases the importance of nominal exchange rate stabilization relative to a standard model without inventories. The importance of nominal exchange rate stabilization increases with the intratemporal elasticity of substitution.     

Risk aversion, intertemporal substitution, and the aggregate investment-uncertainty relationship

We analyze the role of risk aversion and intertemporal substitution in a simple dynamic general equilibrium model of investment and savings. Our main finding is that risk aversion cannot by itself explain a negative relationship between aggregate investment and aggregate uncertainty, as the effect of increased uncertainty on investment also depends on the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. In particular, the relationship between aggregate investment and aggregate uncertainty is positive even if agents are very risk averse, as long as the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is low. A negative investment-uncertainty relationship requires that the relative risk aversion and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution are both relatively high or both relatively low. We also show that the implications of our model are consistent with the available empirical evidence.