Environmental policy and convexity of climate change damage functions: an experiment with New Keynesian DSGE model

International Economics and Economic Policy - The paper seeks out to investigate how varying degree of convexity of climate change damage function affect economic output and the dynamic response of...     

Credit policy,real exchange rate volatility and moral hazard

We extend the well-developed theoretical literature on unconventional credit policy from a closed economy to a small open economy. Consistent with the literature, we find that credit policy has positive effects on output and consumption by raising investment demand. In terms of expanding output, it is more effective to extend government credit to banks than to the goods-producing sector because for each unit of credit supplied to banks, banks - through leverage - can supply greater than one unit of intermediation to firms. We find the welfare implications are ambiguous and depend on the type of policy chosen. A policy of providing funds to goods-producing firms tends to be welfare-improving because it dampens the responses of all variables after a negative shock, including the real exchange rate. However, providing government assistance to the banking sector may be a costly policy because it encourages greater risk-taking on part of banks, leading to higher bank leverage. All else equal, this increases the volatility of the economy, raising the variances of consumption and of the real exchange rate, which is welfare-deteriorating. We interpret this as indicative of the problem of moral hazard associated with a policy of providing support to failing banks.     

Modelling the volatility of commodities prices using a stochastic volatility model with random level shifts

We use the approach of Qu and Perron (Econom J 16(3):309–339, 2013) for the modeling and inference of volatility of a set of commodity prices in the presence of random level shifts of unknown timing, magnitude and frequency. Our approach contributes to the study of commodities in several aspects. First, we test for the presence of a genuine long-memory process in the volatility of commodities. Second, we determine that the random level shifts are certainly the main source of variation in the commodity price volatility. Finally, we estimate the volatility and its components as latent variables, thereby making it possible to evaluate their level of correlation with macroeconomic variables in small open economies such as Latin-American countries where the dependence on commodity price volatility is high. We use six commodity series: agriculture, livestock, gold, oil, industrial metals and a general commodity index. All series cover the period from January 1983 until December 2013 in daily frequency. The results show that although the occurrence of a level shift is rare, (about once every 1.5 or 1.8 years), this component clearly contributes most to the variation in the volatility. Furthermore, isolating the level shift component from the overall volatility indicates a strong relationship of this component with a set of business cycle indicators of several Latin American countries.     

Credibility and monetary policy in a model with growth

We examine the implications for monetary policy design of includinglearning-by-doing effects in a macroeconomic model. We showthat an inflation bias arises because monetary surprises maybe exploited to maximise potential output by temporarily raisingthe rate of human capital accumulation. Our model also providesan alternative explanation for the empirical evidence linkinginflation and growth, where the causal link goes from slow growthto high inflation. Unlike traditional credibility models, aninflationary bias can persist even when the authorities do notwish to offset labour market distortions through monetary surpriseswhich undercut the median voter's income.     

International market interdependence and learning-by-doing in a risky world

International Market Interdependence and Learning-by-Doing in a Risky World. — This paper explores the role of international financial markets for the dynamic evolution of comparative advantage in a small economy. In a world where learning-by-doing alters labor’s productivity over time, the current allocation of labor across industries determines the future productivity of labor in each industry and future comparative advantage. The presence of technological uncertainty that is imperfectly correlated across two industries affects the current labor allocation and, thus, future industry-specific labor productivity. The introduction of international financial markets to this stochastic environment influences current resource allocations, future labor productivity, and consequently, the future path of comparative advantage.     

Tax policy in a matching model with training

This paper develops a model of search on the labour market withtraining. We explore how the combination of an average job taxand a marginal wage tax can be used to alleviate inefficienciesin job matching and, at the same time, raise a positive revenuewith minimal distortions in search and training. We find that(i) a wage tax is less distortionary to raise revenue than isa job tax if training is not distorted initially; (ii) thisconclusion may reverse in the presence of training distortions;(iii) marginal wage taxes are less distortionary in economieswhere bargaining parties can commit to the wage profile.     

内生的杠杆阈值、金融加速器与宏观经济波动——基于动态随机一般均衡模型(DSGE)的分析

建立一个内嵌金融加速器和名义"债务-通缩"机制的DSGE分析框架,首先证明高杠杆通过金融加速器与名义"债务-通缩"加剧宏观经济波动：一方面高杠杆通过金融加速器导致"高杠杆-外部融资溢价"的恶性循环,另一方面名义计价的高债务可能导致"偿还债务-通缩-债务负担加重"的"债务-通缩"风险。进一步,虽然高杠杆可能触发系统性金融风险,但不同经济条件下债务的可持续性不同,杠杆阈值具有内生性,经济体最高能承受的杠杆率是经济系统的内生变量,与金融市场信息效率、债务合约、储蓄率、银行资产负债表结构相关。文章为供给侧改革与去杠杆提供了理论支持,一方面要降低宏观债务负担,另一方面要提升经济承担杠杆、抵御金融风险的能力,同时提示去杠杆要避免骤然紧缩信贷导致的流动性风险。     

Fiscal policy and potential output in a model with rational expectations

Zusammenfassung Fiskalpolitik und Produktionspotential in einem Modell der rationalen Erwartungen. — Der Autor entwickelt ein Modell der rationalen Erwartungen für Produktion und Inflation, in dem Arbeit und importierte Energie substitutive Produktionsfaktoren sind. Sowohl die potentielle als auch die zyklische Produktion werden endogen erkl?rt durch monet?re, fiskalische und externe Impulse. Zus?tzlich zu früheren Analysen wird gezeigt, wie erwartete fiskalische und externe Impulse das Produktionspotential über verschiedene Kan?le auf der Angebotsseite beeinflussen. Die empirischen Ergebnisse für Deutschland weisen auf den Vorrang des Produktionspotentials bei der Erkl?rung der tats?chlichen Produktion hin, wobei das Produktionspotential vorwiegend durch die Wirkungen erwarteter fiskalpolitischer Impulse auf Arbeitsnachfrage und -angebot bestimmt wird. Die Inflation wird haupts?chlich durch erwartete fiskalische und externe Impulse beeinflu?t, die auf das Arbeitsangebot und die Energienachfrage einwirken.

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Résumé La politique fiscale et la production potentielle dans un modèle aux anticipations rationnelles. — En utilisant la main d’œuvre et l’énergie importée comme des facteurs de production substitutables, on développe un modèle aux anticipations rationnelles pour expliquer la production et l’inflation. On explique toutes les deux, la production potentielle et cyclique, endogènement en considérant les impulsions monétaires, fiscaux et externes. En plus aux analyses antérieurs il est montré comment les impulsions fiscaux et externes anticipées influencent la production potentielle via des chemins différents de la part de l’offre, Les résultats empiriques concernant l’Allemagne indiquent une dominance de la production potentielle en expliquant la production réelle qui est déterminée surtout par les impulsions de la politique fiscale attendue via l’offre et la demande de la main d’œuvre. L’inflation est influencée d’une manière décisive par les impulsions fiscaux et externes qui touchent l’offre de la main d’œuvre et la demande d’énergie.

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Resumen Política fiscal y producto potencial en un modelo con expectativas rationales. — Se desarrolla un modelo de expectativas rationales para el producto real y la inflatión, con trabajo y energia importada como factores de productión substitutivos. Ambos, el producto potencial y el cíclico, son explicados endógenamente por impulsos monetarios, fiscales y externos. Adicionalmente a lo presentado en análisis previos, se muestra cómo los impulsos fiscales y externos esperados influencian el producto potencial através de distintos canales de oferta. Los resultados empíricos para Alemania indican la importancia del producto potencial para explicar el producto real, el cual es determinado por impulsos de política fiscal esperados, canalizados através de la oferta y la demanda de trabajo. La inflatión es influenciada ante todo por impulsos fiscales y externos esperados que afectan a la oferta de trabajo y a la demanda de energia.

     

Exchange rate volatility and agricultural trade under policy reforms in South Africa

Decades of government intervention have helped develop the South African agriculture sector to its present state. Policy reforms have included trade and exchange rate policies to increase the country's international competitiveness, reduce poverty and promote economic growth. These reforms are facilitating the growth in agricultural trade and South Africa's reintegration into the global economy. Annual agricultural exports and imports have increased. This paper uses annual data and a vector error-correction model to investigate the supply and demand relationships for agricultural trade flows in South Africa during the past four decades. The results show that prices, real exchange rates, domestic production capacity and real incomes have significant impacts on the country's agricultural trade. In particular, exchange rate volatility has negative impacts. This cannot be viewed solely as an exogenous source of macroeconomic instability in South Africa, as domestic policies play a crucial role in influencing the movement of exchange rates.     

Monetary Policy and Natural Disasters in a DSGE Model

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, speculation arose that the Federal Reserve might respond by easing monetary policy. This article uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to investigate the appropriate monetary policy response to a natural disaster. We show that the standard Taylor rule response in models with and without nominal rigidities is to increase the nominal interest rate. That finding is unchanged when we consider the optimal policy response to a disaster. A nominal interest rate increase following a disaster mitigates both temporary inflation effects and output distortions that are attributable to nominal rigidities.     

Real wages, employment and macroeconomic policy in a structuralist model for South Africa

It is now commonplace to argue that in South Africa, like manydeveloping countries, higher wages will lower employment. Thispaper shows that it is difficult to extricate the relationshipbetween wages, employment and output from the macropolicy environment.Dynamic computable general equilibrium simulations show thatthe employment effects of nominal wage increases depends oninduced monetary and fiscal policy when there is monetary 'policydominance'. While wage-led growth is inefficient, increasingthe wages of unskilled workers can improve the distributionof income, when the induced changes are neutralised.     

The driving forces of China's business cycles: Evidence from an estimated DSGE model with housing and banking

We study the approximate sources of China's business cycles in an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with housing and banking. The model replicates well the volatility and cyclicality of key macroeconomic variables observed in the past two decades in China. A host of shock decomposition exercises demonstrate that, among the shocks being considered, both financial and housing shocks are driving China's business cycles, accounting for a particularly large fraction of the variance in most macroeconomic and financial variables at the business cycle frequencies. In particular, the capital quality, housing demand, and loan-to-value shocks display prominent contributions to the business cycle fluctuations. Moreover, there exists substantial interactions between the banking and housing sectors in China, where the collateral constraint and the financial constraint amplify with each other. The results shed new light in the understanding of China's business cycles, and may serve as a useful benchmark for future quantitative analyses of China's macroeconomic fluctuations using DSGE frameworks.     

Returns to scale,imperfect competition and aggregate demand and trade policy effects in a two-country model

This paper constructs a simple general equilibrium two-country model with flexible exchange rates, specialization in production, and oligopolistic firms. The model is simulated in order to investigate how returns to scale and imperfect competition influence the process through which the aggregate demand and trade policy effects are transmitted internationally. The possibility that aggregate demand and trade policies enacted by one country can have beggar my neighbor effects on the other country cannot be excluded.     

Income volatility,household leverage,and consumption in Korea

Using the micro household data in Korea, we examine the effects of income volatility changes on households’ leverage and consumption. We found that households who faced increased income volatility lowered their leverage ratio. A one standard deviation increase in income volatility was associated with 1.3 ∼ 1.5 percentage point decrease in the leverage ratio. The effects of income volatility changes on households’ leverage choices varied with households’ borrowing constraints and other socioeconomic backgrounds. We also found that when faced with enlarged income uncertainty, households’ income coefficients on consumption were lowered. The income coefficient of average households was estimated to be around 0.16, while households with increased income volatility were around 0.12. In particular, similar to the relations in leverage ratio changes, consumptions among potentially borrowing-constrained households and those with ‘net-short’ position in real estate assets were more affected by increases in income volatility. This can be understood that households smoothed their consumption during the periods of increased income volatility, and this was shown in the smaller consumption elasticity on income. This can be attributed to the fact that faced with increased income volatility, households lower the risk exposure of their financial net wealth by lowering their leverage ratio.     

Fiscal policy in an optimizing model with finite lives and endogenous labour supply

Summary In this paper the impact of balanced budget, money-financed and bond-financed fiscal policy is analyzed, in the short run as well as in the long run. The analysis is based on an optimizing model of a closed economy that displays perfect foresight of agents and sticky wages and prices. Consumers have finite planning horizons modeled according to the Blanchard-Yaari framework. Labour supply is endogenized by including leisure in the utility function. Labour scarcity is also allowed for. The results are illustrated by numerical simulation experiments.List of symbols A financial wealth - B stock of bonds - c actual consumption - c _d demand for consumption goods - c _s supply of consumption goods - D dividend - E equity - F government budget deficit - g government expenditures - H human wealth - i actual investment (excluding installation costs) - i _d demand for investment goods (excluding installation costs) - j actual investment - j _d demand for investment goods - j _s supply of investment goods - k capital stock - l actual employment - l _d notional demand for labour - l _k Keynesian demand for labour - l _s supply of labour - M money stock - P _l nominal wage - P _y price - q Tobin'sq - R nominal interest rate - T lump-sum tax - u instantaneous utility - U lifetime utility - W total wealth - y actual production - y _d demand for goods - y _l labour constrained supply of goods - y _s notional supply of goods     

Income inequality,volatility, and mobility risk in China and the US

A unified index of income inequality, volatility, and mobility risk is presented, and measurements based on US and Chinese panel data calculated. China is found to have higher-income volatility than the US in recent data, so that long-run inequality is comparable in the two countries, and short-run inequality overstates long-run inequality more in China than in the US. In both countries volatility and income inequality are increasing over time.     

Testing for parameter stability in DSGE models. The cases of France,Germany, Italy,and Spain

We estimate a New Keynesian DSGE model on French, German, Italian, and Spanish data. The main aim of this paper is to check for the respective sets of parameters that are stable over time, making use of the ESS procedure (“Estimate of Set of Stable parameters”) developed by Inoue and Rossi (Rev Econ Stat 93(4):1186–1204, 2011). This new econometric technique allows to address the stability properties of each single parameter in a DSGE model separately. In the case of France, Germany, and Italy our results point to structural breaks after the beginning of the second stage of EMU in the mid-nineties, while the estimates for Spain show a significant break just before the start of the third stage in 1998. Specifically, there are significant changes in monetary policy behavior for France, Italy, and Spain, while monetary policy in Germany seems to be stable over time.     

Rational expectations,disequilibrium quantities,and policy effectiveness in a non-market-clearing framework

Zusammenfassung Rationale Erwartungen, Ungleichgewichtsmengen und die Wirksamkeit der Wirtschaftspolitik in einem System ohne R?umung des Marktes. — Dieser Aufsatz liefert die mikro?konomischen Grundlagen für ein makro?konomisches Modell, in dem alle Wirtschaftssubjekte rationale Erwartungen hegen, wobei aber die Kosten für das Abtasten des Preises, der den Markt r?umt, im Vergleich zum potentiellen Nutzen so hoch sind, da\ es sich nicht lohnt, diesen Preisfmdungsproze\ bis zu Ende zu gehen. Die vorliegende Analyse vergleicht die Spezifizierung des Outputs in der reduzierten Form des Modells, in dem der Markt nicht ger?umt wird, mit denen, die sich direkt aus einem Modell mit Marktr?umung ergeben. Unser Modell entspricht vollst?ndig der Vorstellung, da\ die Geldbeh?rden nur dadurch die gesamtwirtschaftliche Produktion beeinflussen k?nnen, da\ sie systematische Abweichungen zwischen den tats?chlichen und den erwarteten Preisen hervorrufen. Diese Untersuchung zeigt, da\ die These von Lucas-Sargent über die Ohnmacht einer systematischen Geldpolitik gegenüber alternativen Spezifizierungen robuster ist, als allgemein vermutet wird. Unser Modell l?\t es zu, da\ die Produktion von Lucas’ Angebotsregel infolge eines Verhaltens abweicht, das nicht zu einer Marktr?umung führt, was über die Unwichtigkeit sofortiger Preisanpassungen hinausgeht.

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Résumé Anticipations rationnelles, quantités des déséquilibres et l’efficacité de la politique dans le cadre des marchés sans clearing. — Dans cet article l’auteur établit les bases microéconomiques d’un modèle macroéconomique dans lequel tous les agents forment leurs anticipations rationnellement, mais dans lequel les processus de tatonnement pour trouver chaque prix d’équilibre avec le clearing du marché sont trop co?teux au sens de leurs bénéfices potentiels pour être poursuivis à la fin. Cette analyse compare directement la spécification de production en forme réduite de ce modèle de marché sans clearing avec celles qui sont dérivées d’un modèle analogue de marché avec clearing. Notre modèle est totalement compatible avec l’idée que les autorités monétaires peuvent influencer la production réelle agrégée seulement en causant des divergences systématiques entre les prix actuels et attendus. L’analyse démontre que la proposition de Lucas-Sargent regardant l’impotence d’une politique monétaire systématique est plus robuste vis-à-vis les spécifications alternatives qu’on suppose généralement. Notre modèle permet que la production peut dévier du règle d’offre de Lucas à cause d’un comportement qui ne conduit pas au clearing du marché, dépassant l’insignifiance des ajustements de prix immédiats.

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Resumen Expectativas racionales, magnitudes de desequilibrio y efectividad de política en un marco de esclarecimiento extramercado. — En este artículo se construyen las microbases de un modelo macroeconómico en el que todos los agentes forman expectativas racionalmente, pero en el que procesos de tientas para encontrar cada precio de transparencia de mercado son demasiado costosos en términos de poder alcanzar plenamente sus beneficios potenciales. El análisis présente compara directamente la especificación de producción de forma reducida de este modelo de esclarecimiento extra-mercado con aquellas obtenidas de un modelo de esclarecimiento de mercado directamente análogo. Nuestro modelo es completamente consistente con la idea que las autoridades monetarias solamente pueden afectar la producción agregada real causando discrepancias sistemáticas entre precios reales y esperados. Este análisis muestra, que la proposición de Lucas-Sargent acerca de la impotencia de la política monetaria sistemática es más robusta con respecto a especificaciones alternativas que lo que se presume generalmente. Nuestro modelo permite que la producción se desvíe de la regla de oferta de Lucas debido a un comportamiento de esclarecimiento extra-mercado que va más allá de la falta de importancia de ajustes de precios instantáneos.

     

Time inconsistency in a model with lags, persistence, and overlapping wage contracts

The two strands in the literature of monetary analysis, namelythat there are long lags of monetary policy and the adverseeffects of time inconsistency, have not previously been, butneed to be, integrated. To achieve such an objective, in thispaper we present a model of a Central Bank game with the realisticfeatures of both lags and persistence effects naturally imbeddedin overlapping wage contracts. In our more realistic model,the inflationary bias is much smaller, inflation is less volatile,and the optimal adjustment of monetary instrument needs to besmoother than previously assessed.     

Exogenous changes and policy reforms,labor migration,and welfare in a Keynesian economy

This paper examines the potential interaction between international labor migration, exogenous changes or policy reforms, and pre-existing distortions, such as generalized excess supply due to price-wage rigidities. Within this Keynesian income-expenditure context, it is suggested that (i) when international labor migration exists, the traditional Keynesian conclusions regarding the welfare effects of exogenous distortions, i.e., increase in exports need to be modified, and (ii) in the presence of price-wage rigidities, regardless of whether or not labor is internationally mobile, a policy reforming the country's tariff-subsidy structure may not be welfare improving.