scholarly journals Policy and Business Cycle Shocks: A Structural Factor Model Representation of the US Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 371
Author(s):  
Mario Forni ◽  
Luca Gambetti

We use a dynamic factor model to provide a semi-structural representation for 101 quarterly US macroeconomic series. We find that (i) the US economy is well described by a number of structural shocks between two and five. Focusing on the four-shock specification, we identify, using sign restrictions, two policy shocks, monetary and fiscal, and two non-policy shocks, demand and supply. We obtain the following results. (ii) Both supply and demand shocks are important sources of fluctuations; supply prevails for GDP, while demand prevails for employment and inflation. (ii) Monetary and fiscal policy shocks have sizable effects on output and prices, with no evidence of crowding-out of private aggregate demand components; both monetary and fiscal authorities implement important systematic countercyclical policies reacting to demand shocks. (iii) Negative demand shocks have a large long-run positive effect on productivity, consistently with the Schumpeterian “cleansing” view of recessions.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (044) ◽  
pp. 1-76
Author(s):  
Edward Herbst ◽  
◽  
Fabian Winkler ◽  

We estimate a Bayesian three-dimensional dynamic factor model on the individual forecasts in the Survey of Professional Forecasters. The factors extract the most important dimensions along which disagreement comoves across variables. We interpret our results through a general semi-structural dispersed information model. The two most important factors in the data describe disagreement about aggregate supply and demand, respectively. Up until the Great Moderation, supply disagreement was dominant, while in recent decades and particularly during the Great Recession, demand disagreement was most important. By contrast, disagreement about monetary policy shocks seems to play a minor role in the data. Our findings can serve to discipline structural models of heterogeneous expectations. Keywords: Disagreement, Forecast Dispersion, Heterogeneous Expectations, Noisy Information, Dynamic Factor Model.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S94-S137 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Maria del Rio-Chanona ◽  
Penny Mealy ◽  
Anton Pichler ◽  
François Lafond ◽  
J Doyne Farmer

Abstract We provide quantitative predictions of first-order supply and demand shocks for the US economy associated with the COVID-19 pandemic at the level of individual occupations and industries. To analyse the supply shock, we classify industries as essential or non-essential and construct a Remote Labour Index, which measures the ability of different occupations to work from home. Demand shocks are based on a study of the likely effect of a severe influenza epidemic developed by the US Congressional Budget Office. Compared to the pre-COVID period, these shocks would threaten around 20 per cent of the US economy’s GDP, jeopardize 23 per cent of jobs, and reduce total wage income by 16 per cent. At the industry level, sectors such as transport are likely to be output-constrained by demand shocks, while sectors relating to manufacturing, mining, and services are more likely to be constrained by supply shocks. Entertainment, restaurants, and tourism face large supply and demand shocks. At the occupation level, we show that high-wage occupations are relatively immune from adverse supply- and demand-side shocks, while low-wage occupations are much more vulnerable. We should emphasize that our results are only first-order shocks—we expect them to be substantially amplified by feedback effects in the production network.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Eickmeier ◽  
Markus Kühnlenz

We apply a structural dynamic factor model to a large quarterly data set covering 38 countries between 2002 and 2011 to analyze China's role in global inflation dynamics. We identify Chinese supply and demand shocks and examine their contributions to global price dynamics and the transmission mechanism. Our main findings are as follows: (i) Chinese supply and demand shocks affect prices in other countries significantly. Demand shocks matter slightly more than supply shocks. Producer prices tend to be more strongly affected than consumer prices by Chinese shocks. The overall share of international inflation explained by Chinese shocks is notable (about 6 percent on the average over all countries but not more than 13 percent in each region). (ii) Direct channels (via import and export prices) and indirect channels (via greater exposure to foreign competition and commodity prices) both matter. (iii) Differences in trade and in commodity exposure help explain cross-country differences in price responses.


2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 272-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandile Hlatshwayo ◽  
Michael Spence

This paper examines the underlying structural elements of US growth patterns, pre- and post-crisis. Prior to the recession, the US economy exhibited a defective growth pattern driven by outsized domestic demand. As domestic aggregate demand retreats to more sustainable levels relative to total income, the tradable side of the economy is a catalyst for restoring strong growth. A structural rebalancing is already underway; although it is only a third of the economy, the tradable sector generated more than half of gross gains in value-added since the start of the recovery. However, distributional issues loom on the horizon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Moayad H. Al Rasasi

This paper evaluates the response of G7 real exchange rates to oil supply and demand shocks developed by Kilian (2009). We find evidence suggesting that oil shocks are associated with the appreciation (depreciation) of real exchange rates for oil exporting (importing) countries. Further evidence, based on the analysis of forecast error variance decomposition, indicates that oil-specific demand shocks are the main contributor to variation in real exchange rates, whereas oil supply shocks contribute the least. Finally, regarding the role of monetary policy in responding to oil and exchange rate shocks, we find evidence showing monetary policy reacts only to oil-specific demand and aggregate demand shocks in three countries, whereas monetary policy responds to real exchange rate fluctuations in four countries.


Author(s):  
Yangyang Ji

Abstract Eggertsson (2012, American Economic Review, 102, 524–55) finds that when the nominal interest rate hits the zero lower bound, the aggregate demand (AD) curve becomes upward-sloping and supply-side policies that reduce the natural rate of output, such as the New Deal implemented in the 1930s, are expansionary. His analysis is restricted to a conventional equilibrium where the AD curve is steeper than the aggregate supply (AS) curve. Recent research, however, demonstrates that an alternative equilibrium arises if the AD curve is flatter than the AS curve. In that case, the same policies become contractionary. In this article, I allow for both possibilities, and let data decide which equilibrium the US economy actually resided in during the Great Depression. Following the work of Blanchard and Quah (1989, American Economic Review, 79, 655–73), I find that there is a high probability that New Deal policies were contractionary. (JEL codes: E32, E52, E62, N12).


Author(s):  
Yan-Ling Tan ◽  
Muzafar Shah Habibullah ◽  
Shivee Ranjanee Kaliappan ◽  
Alias Radam

The purpose of this study is to estimates the size of the shadow economy for 80 countries from nine regions spanning the period 1975-2012 based on Tanzi-type currency demand approach (CDA). This study contributes to the literature in three distinct ways. First, we augment CDA regression with a macroeconomic uncertainty index (MUI). Second, the construction of the uncertainty index is based on the dynamic factor model (DFM). Third, the pooled mean group (PMG) estimator allows in capturing the heterogeneity across countries in the short-run dynamics but imposing restrictions in the long-run parameters. The results confirm the existence of the longrun equilibrium relationship among the variables examined. All coefficients show expected signs along with statistical significance. More importantly, the macroeconomic uncertainty index variable show positive relationship, suggesting that public tend to hold more currency in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. In addition, we observe that developing regions (ranging from 19.9% to 37.3%) exhibit relatively large size of the shadow economy. On the contrary, developed regions have a considerable smaller estimate (ranging from 13.7% to 19.0%) of the size of shadow economy. On average, the world estimate of the shadow economy as a percentage of GDP is about 23.1%. Keywords: Shadow Economy; Currency Demand; Macroeconomic Uncertainty; Pooled Mean Group.


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