The contractionary effects of tax shocks on productivity: An empirical and theoretical analysis

I analyze the effects of tax policy changes on US Total Factor Productivity. VAR estimates show that permanent and exogenous tax increases have strong, permanent, and negative effects on TFP which represent about 80% of change in output following the tax increase. I then build a DSGE model which has learning-by-doing and endogenous TFP evolution. The benchmark model is able to replicate the empirical impulse responses. However, when I calibrate the model as in the literature, the effect of taxes on TFP is substantially less elastic than in the data. I argue that this divergence may arise because tax changes labeled as exogenous can give spurious results or because of a mis-specified model.     

Economic growth and poverty traps in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of education and TFP shocks

This paper investigates the “education-total factor productivity trade-off” in explaining income per worker differences between sub-Saharan (unlucky) and G7 (lucky) economies. First, we examine the dynamics of average years of schooling (i.e. education), capital per worker, income per worker, and total factor productivity (TFP) across sub-Saharan and G7 countries. We confirm that physical capital and education levels partially explain income per worker differences between lucky and unlucky economies. Second, we undertake a novel examination of the impact of technology shocks on income per worker, with the goal of understanding the role of technology variation in causing cross-country income per worker differences, and as a potential contributor to overall slow growth in the sub-Saharan region. In a vector autoregressive (VAR) framework, we show that the impact of “ad hoc” TFP shocks on income per worker is larger in unlucky economies than in lucky ones. We observe that average TFP volatility in the “unlucky world” is eight times higher than in the “G7 world”. We argue that the order of magnitude of the impact heavily depends on the level of the TFP volatility. Last, we suggest that the documented differences in the amount of physical capital and in the productivity of human capital between these two regions add conceptual support for the existence of poverty traps for sub-Saharan Africa.     

TFP冲击对两部门经济增长的影响研究

首先将两位数工业行业分为投资品部门和消费品部门,然后通过DEA-Malmquist指数方法测算出了2006—2017年的两部门技术进步效率及其变化情况,两部门的全要素生产率(TFP)变化指数都超过了1,且投资品部门的TFP变化指数相对于消费品部门更高,投资品部门TFP变化指数呈波动上升趋势而消费品部门呈波动下降趋势,最后运用PVAR模型考察了两部门TFP冲击对产出、投资和就业的影响。TFP冲击的结果显示:两部门TFP冲击对经济发展都具有扩张效应,促进了产出增加,且TFP冲击对投资品部门的影响作用更大,消费品部门的TFP冲击对投资和就业具有负向影响且大于投资品部门的影响。     

中国地区农业TFP测算与分解:以南京市为例

以南京市为例,采用Tornqvist指数法计算和分析了1991-2005年中国地区农业全要素生产率（TFP）的增长率,并对TFP增长的来源进行分解,估算了对TFP增长有促进作用的各类关键因素的贡献率。根据TFP增长贡献率的大小,对中国地区农业现代化发展提出了一些对策性建议。主要研究结论如下：支农及农业事业费、农田灌溉率、农业劳动者每日工资与人均非农年收入的比值都对TFP的增长具有统计意义上的正的重要影响;而农产品生产价格指数对TFP有着统计意义上的负的影响。     

How barriers to international trade affect TFP

We ask how barriers to international trade affect TFP when there are monopoly rights in the import-competing industries. Holmes and Schmitz [1995. Resistance to new technology and trade between areas. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review 19, 2–17] show that without barriers to trade TFP in these industries is as large as possible. We study the general case of finite barriers to trade. We find that binding quotas lead to the use of inefficient technology in the import-competing industries. In addition, finite quotas or tariffs imply that the import-competing industries produce larger than efficient quantities, if they produce at all. For both of these reasons, barriers to international trade reduce TFP.     

要素配置扭曲与农业全要素生产率

要素市场扭曲会导致农户个体对资本、劳动等生产要素配置扭曲,最终降低农业的总量全要素生产率(TFP)。本文运用2003-2007年全国农村固定跟踪观察农户数据,实证分析了中国东、中、西部以及东北地区农户家庭生产的要素配置扭曲程度及其与总量TFP的关系,发现不同地区农户要素配置的扭曲存在显著的差异:从扭曲水平和发散程度来看,东部和西部地区的资源配置扭曲较为严重,中部、东北地区的配置效率较高。即使不考虑技术因素,如果有效消除资本和劳动配置的扭曲,农户的农业TFP有望再增长20%以上,其中东部和西部地区的改进空间超过30%。要素配置的扭曲程度主要取决于农村非农就业机会、金融市场和土地规模。促进社会转型是提高农业生产率的主要途径。     

Stabilizing Taylor rules and determinacy under unit root supply shocks: A re-examination

I revisit the stabilizing and determinacy properties of Taylor-type policy rules in the canonical New Keynesian model when allowing for a unit root in the supply shock process. While able to offset inflationary pressure from non-stationary disturbances, interest-rate feedback rules that are unresponsive to fluctuations in the output gap necessarily produce unstable dynamics and explosive volatility for the latter. Specifically, rules fulfilling the Taylor principle are found to enforce the unique (non-stationary) equilibrium featuring well-anchored inflation expectations and immunity to sunspots; yet there exists no equilibrium predicting stationary behavior for both the inflation and output gap series, irrespective of whether the policy stance induces determinacy or indeterminacy. I show this property survives the adoption of forecast-based instrument rules, and also explore the relationship between Taylor-type rules and optimal discretionary policies in this particular New Keynesian environment.     

The distribution of sectoral TFP growth rates: International evidence

This paper investigates the distributional properties of TFP growth rates for countries in the G7 group. Our findings lend support to the hypothesis that multifactor productivity shocks can be plausibly fitted by a symmetric non-Gaussian stable distribution model. This leads to non-negligible implications for business cycle analysis.     

农村金融发展对农村经济增长的影响——基于江苏省数据的实证分析

利用1990-2009年江苏省农村经济、金融相关数据,运用格兰杰检验和ADF平稳性检验方法并通过建立OLS模型及灰色关联模型对农村经济增长与农村金融发展的关系及其依存度进行了实证分析。结果表明农村经济增长与农村金融发展存在很高的依存度和关联度,农村金融机构贷款的作用尤为重要。基于分析结果建议采取积极有效的政策措施促进农村金融发展,以带动农村经济发展和新农村建设。     

Asymmetric Behaviour of Spanish Regional House Prices

In connection with the housing market, which is presently raising a great deal of concern among the general public, this paper investigates regional housing prices in Spain using variable co-integration techniques. It analyzes the asymmetric behavior in real house prices among the Spanish regions focusing on the study of the long-term relationships over time. This paper raises an important question of the national averages masking important regional asymmetries. Results indicate evidence of co-integration, which suggests a broad grouping of regions based on physical proximity or similar economic characteristics.

Does a non-linear mean reverting process characterize real GDP movements?

This paper uses non-linear models to investigate non-stationarity of real GDP per capita for seven OECD countries over the period 1900–2000. Unit root tests based on non-linear models are more powerful than traditional ADF statistics in rejecting the null unit root hypothesis. Empirical results show that, contrary to what the linear ADF statistics suggest, stationarity characterizes five out of the seven countries. This finding stands at variance with other recent studies which conclude that movements in real GDP per capita can be characterized as a non-stationary process.

The impact of the Great Recession on TFP convergence among EU countries

This article provides evidence on the effect of the Great Recession on productivity convergence among European Union (EU) economies. We use firm data, aggregated at the country-year level, to analyse the evolution of beta-convergence on total factor productivity (TFP) for 2003–2014. We obtain a positive impact of the recession on TFP (unconditional and conditional) beta-convergence across EU economies. These results support the existence of a catching-up process within the EU during the recent financial crisis. Other macroeconomic and institutional characteristics are important in fostering TFP growth, namely R&D intensity and quality of governance.     

中国省区TFP测算及影响因素分析

本文依据1998 -2007年中国28个省区的相关数据,采用修正索洛模型和随机前沿模型测算了中国省区历年的全要素生产率水平和增长率,并利用静态和动态面板数据模型检验了R&D、人力资本、进口、出口以及外商直接投资对我国省区全要素生产率的影响.结果显示,我国省区全要素生产率水平总体呈上升趋势,而增长率则趋于下降,并且地区差距明显.地区间R&D、出口、人力资本对我国省区全要素生产率水平的提高具有显著的正向作用,而外商直接投资和进口的正向作用并不明显;出口对中国省区全要素生产率增长率的提高有明显促进作用,而进口则对其具有明显的阻碍作用,R&D、人力资本及外商直接投资对全要素生产率增长率的提高虽有促进作用,但它们在静态和动态面板数据模型中的显著性则有所差异;另外,研究还发现,中国省区全要素生产率具有显著的“滞后效应”.     

低碳经济下中国区域全要素生产率的收敛性研究

发展低碳经济是中国应对日益严峻的能源紧张和气候变化的必然选择。考虑各区域在能源约束和碳排放下的全要素生产率显得日益重要。根据低碳经济的要求和特征应用Malmquist生产率指数法对我国29个省份及东中西三大地区低碳全要素生产率变动情况进行了实证分析。研究表明,考虑低碳因素后中国的全要素生产率增长率得到增加;低碳全要素生产率的变动由技术进步率的变化主导,低碳技术效率变化对低碳全要素生产率的影响有限;西部地区不存在绝对收敛,东部地区和中部地区存在较明显的“俱乐部收敛”,我国总体及东中西三大地区都存在明显的条件收敛趋势。     

The KPSS test with two structural breaks

In this paper, we generalize the KPSS-type test to allow for two structural breaks. Seven models have been defined depending on the way that structural breaks affect the time series behaviour. The paper derives the limit distribution of the test under both the null and the alternative hypotheses and conducts a set of simulation experiments to analyse the performance in finite samples. Finally, we illustrate the application of the statistics through the analysis of real GDP and real per capita GDP for 22 developed countries.      

制度变迁与全要素生产率——基于2000—2008年省际面板数据的实证分析

利用2000—2008年我国30个省(自治区、直辖市)的面板数据,基于Malmquis指数对全要素生产率进行分解;构建制度替代指标,在控制了基础设施投入、人力资本投入、科技投入三个变量后,运用普通最小二乘法所得的结果仍显示制度变迁对全要素生产率的贡献显著。     

Asymmetric behavior of inflation differentials in the euro area: Evidence from a threshold unit root test

This paper tests the existence of persistent inflation rate differentials in the euro area by employing linear as well nonlinear unit root tests. Besides linear unit root tests, a two-regime threshold unit root test examines the conjecture that inflation rate differentials follow a nonlinear two-regime process towards a threshold, switching from the persistent regime to the transitory one and vice versa. The results imply that threshold nonlinearity is confirmed in 10 out of the 16 cases. However, we have found unit root regime-switching behavior only in six out of the 16 cases under investigation. This finding implies that these inflation rate differentials were persistent when they were low (regime 1), but transitory when they were high (regime 2). This asymmetric behavior can possibly be explained by the different degree of pressure exercised on governments, which is accompanied with different inflation rate differentials. On the contrary, despite the evidence of nonlinearity, the majority of the inflation rate differentials are found to be monotonically persistent. Our results have strong implications for policy makers. In particular, the documented persistency in the inflation rate differentials might have long-run costs in terms of price and macroeconomic stability.     

Asymmetric effects of monetary policy shocks on economic performance: empirical evidence from Turkey

This study investigates the asymmetric effects of monetary policy shocks on the macroeconomic variables of exchange rate, output and inflation for an emerging economy ? Turkey ? by using monthly data between 1990 and 2014. We employ the innovative nonlinear vector autoregressive model of Kilian and Vigfusson (2011), which allows us to observe the effect of different stances (tight or loose) and different sizes (small or large) of monetary policy actions. Our empirical evidence reveals that tight monetary policy, which, in this case, is captured with a positive shock to interest rate, decreases exchange rate, output and prices, as economic theory suggests. Loose monetary policy, which is captured with a negative shock to interest rate, has the opposite effect on these variables. However, the effects of loose monetary policy are weaker than the effects of tight monetary policy because loose monetary policy shocks are less effective than tight monetary policy shocks. Moreover, as the magnitude of a shock increases, the difference between the effects of tight and loose monetary policy policies also increases.     

Unemployment persistence in OECD countries after the Great Recession

The 2008 economic downturn in the United States resulted in a wave of contractionary effects across many OECD countries. This paper investigates the pattern of the unemployment persistence in the United States and other 28 OECD countries before and after the Great Recession. To detect possible changes in the pattern of unemployment persistence, we employ a mean bias-corrected estimation of the persistence parameter with a rolling window of five years. In addition, we estimate the most likely date of change in the trend function of unemployment to test whether there was any significant change in the pattern of unemployment persistence after the Great Recession. We find significant evidence of a structural break and hysteresis in unemployment rates, with a persistence parameter close to unity, across the United States and other 28 OECD countries. Besides, bootstrap permutation tests show that all half-lives and impulse response functions have significantly changed after the Great Recession. Therefore, our findings call for structural reforms aimed at improving labor market performance, to prevent upward shifts in unemployment across OECD countries from becoming permanent.     

GLS detrending-based unit root tests in nonlinear STAR and SETAR models

We extend GLS detrending procedure to testing for unit roots against STAR and SETAR alternatives. Monte Carlo simulations and applications to DM/Yen real exchange rates demonstrate that GLS detrending-based nonlinear unit root tests are more powerful than OLS detrending-based counterparts.