Income Tax and Endogenous Business Cycles

This paper investigates the dynamic implication of balanced–budget rules. We introduce public goods to an overlapping generations model with production and assume that public goods in each period are financed by the labor income taxes. We show that in our model, if the cost of providing public goods is financed by lump–sum taxes, endogenous fluctuations would never occur. But in cases where the government adopts proportional taxes, periodic and chaotic equilibria can exist.     

Business Cycles in Yugoslavia

Although Haiti's 2010 earthquake brought to light the inconceivable poverty existing in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti's struggle for economic development long pre-dated that earthquake. One problem in Haiti is the high level of gender inequity, and we argue that human development theory is the best mode for change. We provide a brief background of Haiti's economic development over the last several decades, along with the status of women's rights and gender-differentiated socioeconomic outcomes. We analyze the ways that policy neglect of gender equity in Haiti has contributed to failed economic development in the past. Finally, we identify ways that other developing countries have successfully incorporated a focus on gender equity in their development strategy, particularly in the face of natural disaster and financial crisis. Our goal is working toward a set of leading practices consistent with institutionalism that can be used in relating gender (in)equality to economic development.     

经济增长风险的冲击传导和经济周期波动的“溢出效应”

在非确定性的经济环境当中 ,我们利用经济增长率的绝对离差、条件标准差和在险增长水平等三种方法度量了经济增长风险和条件波动性 ,然后利用冲击反应函数度量了经济增长水平对于经济增长风险的动态反应 ,并检验了增长水平与波动性之间的影响关系。检验结果表明 ,经济风险性和波动性与经济增长水平之间存在显著正相关关系 ,由此可以推断经济周期波动性对于经济增长水平存在“溢出效应” ,较高的经济波动性带来了经济增长水平的“风险奖励” ;同时 ,从经济风险的传导过程中可以判断 ,非确定性因素和突发事件尚未对我国经济增长的趋势水平形成显著干预 ,我国经济增长过程抵御外部冲击的能力已经得到显著提高。     

宏观经济波动周期的测度

目前关于中国宏观经济波动的争论很多,而且分析一般都基于2005年全国经济普查之前的统计数据作为研究对象,这必然会对分析结果造成不良的影响。为了更准确地分析中国宏观经济波动背后的成因,首先要明确历次经济波动周期的起止时期。本文比较了目前国际上公认比较成熟的四种方法,分别是线形趋势法、H-P滤波法、Band-Pass滤波法和生产函数法,对我国1952—2005年的数据进行分析,使用了2005年全国经济普查之后的统计数据,分别估计出了改革开放以后出现过的经济波动周期的起止时间。通过对这四种方法各自的优点和存在的问题进行分析,经过相互验证,笔者估算出历次宏观经济波动的起止时期,这将为进一步分析历次宏观经济波动背后的成因打下必要的基础。     

Credit and Business Cycles

This paper presents two dynamic models of the economy in which credit constraints arise because creditors cannot force debtors to repay debts unless the debts are secured by collateral. The credit system becomes a powerful propagation mechanism by which the effects of shocks persist and amplify through the interaction between collateral values, borrowers' net worth and credit limits. In particular, when fixed assets serve as collateral, I show that relatively small, temporary shocks to technology or wealth distribution can generate large, persistent fluctuations in output and asset prices.
JEL Classification Numbers: E32, E44     

中国经济周期的非对称性

笔者采用Clements和Krolzig参数检验方法,利用我国1979年第1季度～2009年第4季度实际季度GDP增长率数据,对我国经济周期的深度、尖度及陡度型非对称、经济周期的划分以及持续性等特征进行实证分析.结果表明,我国经济周期具有陡度型非对称特征,但并不具备深度型和尖度型非对称特征;我国经济从低速增长状态转移到高速增长状态的可能性较大,远远大于经济从低速增长状态转移到适速增长状态的可能性;经济处于适速增长阶段的持续性最高,处于高速增长阶段的持续性次之,而低速阶段持续性最低,且它具有一定的惰性但又具有较高的概率转向高速增长阶段.     

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.     

The Determinants of UK Business Cycles

This paper considers the causes of post-war UK business cycles. Using an extended stochastic growth model we construct estimates of productivity and preference shocks both of which are highly persistent, volatile and potentially capable of explaining UK business cycles. We find the productivity term is the dominant explanation of UK output fluctuations but our estimated preference shift is crucial in understanding employment movements. A variety of Granger causality tests establish whether these productivity and preference terms are unpredictable and so can be potentially considered as the cause of UK business cycles or whether they are themselves Granger caused by other variables.     

Key Features of Australian Business Cycles

This paper identifies and describes the key features of Australian business cycles during the period 1959–2002. In particular, we identify the chronologies in Australia's classical cycle (expansions and contractions in the level of output) and growth cycle (periods of above-trend and below-trend rates of economic growth). We find that while there are large asymmetries in the duration and amplitude of phases in Australia's classical cycle, on both measures the Australian growth cycle is much more symmetric. Further, our results indicate that over the sample period Australian (filtered) output and prices have moved in a counter-cyclical fashion, suggesting a dominance of shocks to aggregate supply affecting the Australian economy.     

实现经济周期波动在适度高位的平滑化

本文主要探讨未来5—8年的中期内,中国经济周期波动有可能出现的两个新特点:一是在波动的位势上,有可能实现持续多年的适度高位运行,潜在经济增长率将在9%左右;二是在波动的幅度上,有可能实现进一步的平滑化,使经济波动保持在8%—10%的适度增长区间内。这两个特点之所以说是“有可能”,一方面因为其中包含着一定的客观因素,另一方面因为未来还面临着许多新挑战。本文从中国国情出发,根据马克思的有关论述,并综合借鉴熊彼特周期理论和现代经济周期理论的有关分析思路,着重阐明中国本轮经济周期冲击因素的特点(类型特点、形成特点和作用特点),将经济的长期增长趋势与短期周期波动统一起来进行分析。这一分析的政策含义是,需要不断加强和改善宏观调控,努力实现经济周期波动在适度高位的平滑化。     

中国转型期的信贷波动与经济波动

本文基于1981-2002年的季度数据,考察了在经济转轨的不同阶段我国信贷波动的特征,并通过时差相关分析和Granger因果关系检验,分析了信贷波动与经济周期波动的相互关系.结果表明,总体上信贷波动与经济周期波动基本同步,信贷扩张和收缩是产生经济周期波动的显著影响因素,但这种影响从20世纪90年代中期开始有所下降,同时,信贷波动的内生性开始显现.     

Sources of Inequality: Measuring the Contributions of Income Sources to Rising Family Income Inequality

We develop a simulation method for measuring the impact of changes in the distributions of the main income sources on growth in family income inequality. We simulate the entire distribution of family income under the counterfactual, “What if the distribution of each source had not changed?” The simulation method allows us to evaluate the impact of changes at any point in the distribution as well as with multiple measures of inequality. We incorporate married‐couple and single‐person families, appropriately accounting for changes in the proportion married. We apply the simulation method to investigate the impact of changes in male earnings, female earnings, and capital income on the distribution of family income in the United States between 1969 and 1999. We find that changes in the distribution of male earnings account for more of the growth in family income inequality than do changes in any other source of income. Changes in the distribution of female earnings have reduced family income inequality.     

Monetary Policy Rules and Business Cycles

Basic features of business cycle properties under both exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules are examined in calibrated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with nominal rigidities (the nominal wage contract model, the monopolistic competition model with price adjustment costs and a combination of these models). The experiments show that the difference in business cycle features under exogenous and endogenous monetary policy rules is as large as the change generated by introducing nominal rigidities (and monetary disturbances). This result suggests that, for monetary business cycle research, developing a proper way to incorporate endogenous monetary policy rules may be as important as developing new transmission mechanisms of monetary policy disturbances.     

Labor-Market Search and International Business Cycles

The objective of this paper is to explain the observed international fluctuations by modifying the traditional modelling of the labor market in the two-country real business cycles model. Our intuition is that labor-market search can be useful to understand the propagation of international fluctuations. Changes in the expected returns to search induce responses in search and recruiting activities, the effects of which are propagated through time via changes in the stock of employment. Given that the technology shock spills over to the other country, domestic and foreign firms start searching at the same time in anticipation. Employment then increases simultaneously and displays a hump-shaped profile in the two countries. This partially curtails the capital outflow from the country which does not benefit from the shock. Introducing in a search framework a non-separability between consumption and leisure in the utility function allows both to solve the consumption puzzle and to complete the explanation of the international comovement puzzle. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E32, F41, J40.     

International Business Cycles and Exchange Rates

Models of international real business cycles are not able to account for the high volatility of exports, imports, the trade balance, and the terms of trade. By introducing exogenous exchange rate movements in addition to standard technological shocks, the model presented here comes much closer to replicating the relatively high volatility observed in the data while also improving other moments.     

Liquidity Constraints and Business Cycles in Developing Economies

Open economy extensions of real business cycle models, even if generally successful, have met some difficulties replicating a few important stylized facts. In particular, these models tend to predict excessive consumption smoothing and consumption correlations across countries. The observed negative correlation between the trade balance and output in developing countries, the variability of the trade balance and its correlation with the terms of trade have also proven difficult to reproduce. This paper considers how introduction of incomplete markets in the form of liquidity constraints can alleviate these problems. This analysis suggests that adding liquidity constraints helps predict the variability of consumption relative to output. It also improves our estimate of the correlation between the trade balance and output. The model correctly replicates the small positive correlation between the terms of trade and the trade balance. However, it slightly underpredicts the variability of the trade balance when 50% of the consumers are assumed to be liquidity constrained.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Numbers: E13, E32, E44.     

Business Cycles in an Estimated DSGE Model of China

A small-scale New-Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model is estimated by maximum likelihood method using quarterly data of China. Model specifications and parameter equalities between various competing model variants are addressed by formal statistical hypothesis tests, while implications for business cycle fluctuations are evaluated via a variance decomposition experiment, second-moments matching, and some out-of-sample forecast exercises. It is highlighted that both forward and backward components are important for the dynamics of output, inflation and real balances. The monetary authority will take a sufficient aggressive stance, with a significant lagged response, to the current inflation pressure, while leaving less attention to changes in aggregate output. Variance decomposition reveals that large percentages of variations in real and nominal variables are explained by the highly volatile preference shock and potential output shock, respectively. When nominal and real frictions as well as additional shocks are included, our estimated model overall can successfully reproduce the stylized facts of business cycles in the actual data of China and even frequently outperform those forecasts from an unconstrained VAR.     

Emerging Market Business Cycles: Recent Advances

Higher variability of consumption relative to output and strong countercyclicality of the trade balance are important regularities of emerging market business cycles. This paper surveys the recent advances in the literature with a goal to understanding the main drivers of these regularities. The literature suggests that trend shocks or countercyclical interest rate shocks are useful modeling tools, but these shocks need to be amplified through inherent frictions to capture these two regularities with realistic calibrations. Informational frictions in expectation formation and search-matching frictions in the labor market appear to provide powerful amplification to trend shocks and countercyclical interest rate shocks, respectively.     

Non-Walrasian Labor Markets and Real Business Cycles

The standard real business cycle literature mainly focuses on Walrasian models designed to fit the U.S. institutional framework. Differences between the United States and Europe, mostly evident in the labor market, suggest that a purely Walrasian model may be inappropriate for the study of European business cycles. I present a stochastic version of the dynamic general equilibrium model of Daveri and Maffezzoli (2000, “A Numerical Approach to Fiscal Policy, Unemployment and Growth in Europe,” Econometrics and Applied Economics Working Paper 2000-4, IEP, Università Bocconi), where unemployment is generated by monopolistic unions, and calibrate it to reproduce several long-run features of the Italian and U.S. economies. This framework is then compared with an indivisible labor model built on Hansen (1985, Journal of Monetary Economics16, 309–328) and Rogerson and Wright (1988, Journal of Monetary Economics22, 501–515). I focus on the impulse response functions, the standard business cycle statistics, and the ability to reproduce the cyclical components of the main macroeconomic variables. The main results are as follows: (i) the impulse response functions of the monopoly union (MU) model show a higher degree of overall persistence; (ii) the business cycle statistics are similar; (iii) the MU model enjoys a statistically significant advantage in reproducing the Italian business cycle, but not that of the United States. Journal of Economics Literature Classification Numbers: E32, E24, J23, J51.