实际经济周期理论述评

由于卢卡斯批评的出现,宏观经济学在最近的20年里,又开始重新重视经济周期问题的研究.芬·基德兰德和爱德华·普雷斯科特开辟了这一问题研究的新路,创立了所谓的"实际经济周期理论".这一理论特别注意对经济微观主体应对经济环境变化的行为的观察.实际经济周期理论强调技术冲击是经济波动的主要来源.在过去十多年里,实际经济周期理论的概念和方法已开始进入宏观经济学的主流.     

论实际经济周期理论的演进、含义与作用

实际经济周期理论属于西方经济学中的经济自由流派。它突破了货币周期理论,把来自供给方面的技术冲击等意外真实冲击看做是经济波动的根源;认为经济波动不是对长期经济增长趋势的偏离,否定把宏观经济分为长期和短期的观点;坚持货币中性主张;反对政府的干预政策。它以正统的微观经济理论来说明宏观经济波动,改变了人们对经济周期的波动原因的理解,超越了货币主义和新古典宏观经济学,是20世纪80年代以来新自由主义经济学的重大发展。     

宏观经济冲击的作用机制与传导机制研究

经济冲击(economic shock)是目前经济学文献当中出现频率很高的一个关键词。自从Frisch(1933)提出经济冲击机制问题以后,凯恩斯经济学、新古典宏观经济学和实际经济周期理论等均对经济冲击给予了高度重视。经济冲击问题已经成为经济政策理论和经济周期理论的核心问题。     

两种经济周期理论的主要差异

马克思经济学的经济周期理论认为,资本主义经济周期波动的根源在于资本主义社会的基本矛盾,经济周期的物质基础是固定资产更新。而西方经济学经济周期理论认为,经济周期的根源在于外生的技术冲击,经济波动的任何结果都是最优的。通过比较分析可以看出,马克思经济学的经济周期理论深刻阐述了经济周期波动的运动机理与本质特征,科学地揭示了资本主义社会经济运行规律。而西方经济学经济周期理论囿于其基本立场、历史观与方法论,只是在表面上描述经济周期的运行,未能真正揭示经济周期运行的本质规律。比较马克思经济学与西方经济学的经济周期理论,有助于深化对于经济周期问题的认识。     

实际经济周期理论研究新进展

实际经济周期理论(Real Business Cycle Theory,以下简称为RBC)是在20世纪70、80年代形成并发展起来的研究西方发达国家经济周期的理论。RBC理论的主要代表人物是卡耐基-梅隆大学的FinnKydland、明尼苏达大学的Edward Prescott、罗彻斯特大学的John Long等新古典宏观经济学家。其核心思想是较小的技术冲击可以产生较大的经济波动,经济周期是理性个人对实际冲击最优选择的结果,均衡结果是帕累托最优状态,政府干预并不能增进人们的福利水平。     

宏观经济学主要流派及观点综述

宏观经济学的发展从凯恩斯主义经济学开始,经历了新古典综合、货币主义学派、理性预期与新古典宏观经济学和真实经济周期理论,发展至当今的新凯恩斯主义经济学。本文对宏观经济学各学派的理论特点和主要观点进行了梳理和介绍,认为新凯恩斯主义经济学是一个具有微观基础的动态模型,并且引入了垄断竞争、理性预期和价格粘性,这使得该理论可以明确地分析宏观经济从短期至长期的调整机制,更有利于对整个宏观经济调整过程的分析和理解。因此,新凯恩斯主义经济学成为目前宏观经济学理论界主要的分析框架和工具。     

奥地利学派经济周期理论述评

本文筒述了奥地利经济学派的经济周期理论,该学派认为,市场经济本身并不会导致经济周期,现实中出现的经济周期是由政府干预,特别是政府垄断并滥发货币造成的。     

真实经济周期:理论、政策及其应用分析——2004年度诺贝尔经济学奖得主的理论贡献述评

2004的诺贝尔经济学奖授给了基德兰德和普雷斯科特,两位学者是真实经济周期理论的开创者。本文介绍了真实经济周期的理论观点和政策含义,并分析了其在宏观经济学研究和现实经济运行中的应用。     

经济周期理论与我国经济周期性波动的系统考察

美籍奥地利经济学家熊彼特将经济理论、经济史、经济统计三者相结合,创立了关于经济周期分析的系统性理论.本文以熊彼特的经济周期理论为基础,把1978年以后我国的经济增长轨迹按时间区域分为了三个基本阶段,努力实现对我国经济周期的再认识,并以此为基础,为应对本轮经济周期性波动提出一些建设性意见.     

周易运行经济学实践

周易运行经济学用中国传统的周易学分析方法来研究经济运行,得出与西方经济学有别的中国经济学体系。同时使用周易运行经济学理论解释了政府干预和自由经济的关系,通货膨胀,经济周期,信息运用等经济学问题,可以预测国别经济未来的走势。     

Accounting for the business cycle: Nominal rigidities, factor heterogeneity, and Austrian capital theory

An Austrian interpretation of the New Keynesian small menu cost model of the business cycle is proposed. Austrian and New Keynesian business cycle theories share the feature that the cycle is generated by rigidities which prevent the economy from adapting instantaneously to changing conditions. Austrian business cycle theory is capital-based, focusing on credit expansion which artificially lowers interest rates and causes an investment boom and unsustainable business expansion. In contrast, the New Keynesian small menu cost model of the business cycle is based on nominal rigidities which prevent markets from clearing. Small menu costs introduce dichotomous behavior, where firms find it locally optimal to avoid instantaneous output price adjustments in the face of the cost, but this local optimum results in economy-wide output and employment fluctuations which are much greater in relative magnitude. The small menu cost model of the business cycle is extended and reinterpreted in light of Austrian business cycle theory with heterogeneous, multiply-specific capital, thus providing a rigorous formalization of the Austrian business cycle. The Austrian interpretation of this New Keynesian model fortuitously addresses several of its shortcomings. JEL classification B53, E12, E23, E32     

从国际经济周期理论到世界经济周期理论

来自经济体系外部的冲击,通过国际经济纽带在各国之间传导,并在市场机制作用下引起世界各国经济的大致同步波动,从而生成一轮世界经济周期,这种机制可以概括为"外部冲击—部门传导—国际传导"。     

Balance Mechanics and Business Cycles

Abstract

Many mainstream business cycle theories were not able to cope with the financial crisis theoretically. With his concept of balance mechanics, the German economist Wolfgang Stützel developed a framework for comparing different theories of business cycles which helps to understand the reasons for this inadequacy. This paper works out Stützel’s considerations and his four “model cases” of cycles more systematically and shows how the theories of the business cycle Stützel mentioned are related to theories discussed today. Modern business cycle theories did not cover all “model cases” and therefore had a blind spot.     

Consumer sentiment and countercyclical fiscal policies

We re‐explore the consequences of some popular countercyclical intervention rules in a simple Keynesian‐type macroeconomic model in which the dynamics of consumer sentiment and business cycles are intertwined. We find that fiscal policy does not only have a direct effect on national income via the well‐known Keynesian multiplier process but also an indirect effect by affecting consumer sentiment. The good news is that the indirect effect may amplify the direct effect and therefore increases a policy‐maker’s impact on national income. However, the bad news is that due to the interactions between the business cycle and the evolution of consumer sentiment, the stabilization of national income is an intricate matter.     

Austrian business cycle theory: Empirical evidence

The Austrian approach to business cycles has been seldom examined in econometric terms. This paper first reviews the essentials of that approach and the recent application of the Austrian business cycle theory in the economics literature. Quarterly data for Germany, USA, England and France, 1980:1 through 2006:1, are used to explore business cycle facts and relations between terms structure of interest rates, relative prices, composition of aggregate expenditure and real GDP. Results are consistent with the hypothesis of the Austrian business cycle theory that monetary policy shocks explain cycles. The changes in term structure of interest rates and composition of aggregate expenditure are large enough to explain changes in aggregate economic activity.

The origins,development, and fate of Clower's “stock-flow” general-equilibrium programme

Before becoming the hallmark of macroeconomics à la Wynne Godley, the “stock-flow” analysis was already developed in microeconomics and general-equilibrium theory. The goal was to study the formation of economic plans and the determination of market prices when individuals were supposed to consume, produce, and hold commodities. I show that since the early 1950s, Robert W. Clower used the “stock-flow” price theory to offer microfoundations to a Keynesian business cycle model. I analyse the origins of this microfoundation programme, trace its development, and discuss its fate.     

An assessment of inflation targeting in a quantitative monetary business cycle framework: evidence from four early adopters

This article examines the effectiveness of inflation targeting (IT) to stabilize the real economy in advanced countries where IT was adopted in the early 1990s. To quantitatively assess IT, this article employs the monetary business cycle accounting methodology recently developed by ?ustek (2011), which is an extended version of Chari, Kehoe, and McGrattan (2007), to monetary models. Our main finding is that the monetary policy wedge that captures economic fluctuations caused by monetary policy has significantly declined since the implementation of IT in the early 1990s. The results suggest that advanced economies, such as Australia, Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom, that adopted IT in the early 1990s have been successful in stabilizing business cycle fluctuations.     

怎样解释中国经济波动： 基于BCA的分析

本文应用Business Cycle Accounting（BCA）方法,分析效率、劳动、投资和政府消费等扭曲性楔子对中国经济波动的影响。基于一个基本新古典增长模型,本文先从总量数据中估算出这些楔子的实现值,再分别将它们反馈到模型中以进行模拟实验;实验结果表明,只有效率楔子对解释中国经济波动是最重要的。这个发现为解释中国经济波动提供了一种新思路——让经济冲击或经济结构因素产生全要素生产率（TFP）波动,借此来引起其他相关变量的波动;这样建立的模型等价于带有效率楔子的基本增长模型,因此能够解释总量数据的大部分波动,而它们揭示的经济波动机制更有意义。经济周期政策应该更加关注TFP的变动,因为能够影响TFP的政策措施才能更有效地作用于经济波动。     

Dynamic complexity in a Keynesian growth-cycle model involving Harrod's instability

This paper develops a Keynesian macrodynamic model, where some recent reinterpretations of Harrod's dynamics are embodied. Its main purpose is to prove that Harrod's instability principle may give rise to a chaotic motion (specifically a il'nikov scenario) around two equilibrium points: a steady-state unstable equilibrium, whose value depends on parameters defining the technical-progress dynamics, and a stationary state of zero growth. Furthermore, since it allows for a variable growth rate of labor productivity and assigns a key role to expectations, this model comes closer to modern theories of economic growth and endogenous business cycle.     

Measuring the Chinese business cycle

This article documents the business cycle characteristics of the Chinese economy by adopting both nonparametric and parametric methodologies. The two approaches are applied to relevant macroeconomics indicators – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Industrial Production (IP) indices – aiming to investigate the growth cycle (deviation cycle). We provide a clear chronology of the Chinese growth cycle. One significant characteristic of the Chinese growth cycle is the relatively direct influence of government policies. However, recently these policy effects have become less significant when compared to global economic influences. Our study provides an enhanced understanding of the properties of business cycle dating algorithms and as such contributes to future Chinese business cycle research.