Macroeconomic impacts of fiscal shocks on the Moroccan economy: a disaggregated SVAR analysis

PurposeThe present paper aims to evaluate the structural impact of exogenously induced fiscal shocks on the Moroccan economy. This entails an analysis of the effect on the GDP of COVID-19-induced fiscal shocks manifesting in terms of budgetary revenues and expenditures. A key aspect of this analysis addresses the size of the tax and fiscal multipliers.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines the structural relationship between five variables during the period between Q1 2009 and Q2 2020 using an SVAR approach that allows for a dynamic interaction between ordinary expenditures and revenues on a quarterly basis.FindingsPositive structural shocks on public spending are likely to negatively impact economic growth. Negative economic growth, in turn, will damage price levels and interest rates, mainly over the long term. However, public-revenue-multiplier-associated shocks exceed these price- and interest-rate multiplier-associated shocks. Indeed, a structural shock to ordinary revenues can have a positive but insignificant impact on the GDP stemming from the ensuing decrease in the government budget deficit that proceeds from the increase in government revenues.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies in the Moroccan context to assess the impact of the current worldwide pandemic on public finances. In addition, this study highlights the importance of boosting economic recovery through public spending.

VALIDATING DSGE MODELS WITH SVARS AND HIGH-DIMENSIONAL DYNAMIC FACTOR MODELS

A popular validation procedure for Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models consists in comparing the structural shocks and impulse-response functions obtained by estimation-calibration of the DSGE with those obtained in an Structural Vector Autoregressions (SVAR) identified by means of some of the DSGE restrictions. I show that this practice can be seriously misleading when the variables used in the SVAR contain measurement errors. If this is the case, for generic values of the parameters of the DSGE, the shocks estimated in the SVAR are not “made of” the corresponding structural shocks plus measurement error. Rather, each of the SVAR shocks is contaminated by noncorresponding structural shocks. We argue that High-Dimensional Dynamic Factor Models are free from this drawback and are the natural model to use in validation procedures for DSGEs.

Uncertainty and Business Cycles: Exogenous Impulse or Endogenous Response?

Uncertainty about the future rises in recessions. But is uncertainty a source of business cycles or an endogenous response to them, and does the type of uncertainty matter? We propose a novel SVAR identification strategy to address these questions via inequality constraints on the structural shocks. We find that sharply higher macroeconomic uncertainty in recessions is often an endogenous response to output shocks, while uncertainty about financial markets is a likely source of output fluctuations. (JEL D81, E23, E32, E44, G14)

Credit Transition and Structural Shocks

Credit risk involves not only the complexity of screening but also monitoring and estimating rating transition. The adoption of inadequate transition matrices causes a misevaluation of credit risk, a consequent misallocation of capital, with the prospect that the lending process will be affected by increasing transaction costs and limited rationality, especially after a shock. Comparing the mover–stayer and the Markov chain approaches to estimate the SME rating transition matrix, we find that the risk of a structural credit shock imposes flexible estimates not constrained by the long-run trajectory of borrowers. Improved migration estimation mitigates adverse selection in banks’ lending behavior. This conclusion is particularly true during economic downturns with the consequence of reducing the cyclicality and empowering the resilience of banks.

Analysis of External Debt Sustainability in Mongolia: An Estimated DSGE Approach

In this study, we assess the effects of the structural shocks on the external debt sustainability in Mongolia, based on an estimated small open economy (SOE) dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with the traded, the non-traded, and the mining sectors. The impulse response results show that the traded sector’s productivity shock, the commodity price shock, the mining output shock, and the foreign interest-rate shock have a decreasing effect on external debt accumulation in Mongolia, whereas the non-traded sector’s productivity shock, the household preference shock, and the government spending shock have an increasing effect on the same. Furthermore, we assess Mongolia’s external debt sustainability under the COVID−19 pandemic shock. Under our assumed pandemic scenario, Mongolia’s external debt will increase by 30% from its steady state over the next 10–28 quarters. Our recommended solution in this study is to develop the traded sector, instead of the mining sector, to maintain sustainability of the external debt and to decrease vulnerability of the economy.

Structural shocks in monetary policy, exchange rates, and stock prices using SVAR in Iran

Purpose This paper aims to examine the interrelationships of monetary policy's structural shocks, the real exchange rate and stock prices. Design/methodology/approach According to quarterly data, variables such as gross domestic product, consumer price index, the real exchange rate, stock price and monetary policy indices in the structural vector autoregressions model are estimated. These variables' volatility is attributed to other variables’ structural shocks separately, and analysis of variance tables for all variables is presented. Findings The results show that structural shock on the exchange rate does not affect the stock price, but the monetary policy's structural shock positively impacts the real exchange rate. Moreover, the real exchange rate and monetary policy's structural shocks have a negative impact on the stock price index. However, no significant effect is found pertain to the real exchange rate structural shock, statistically. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the current study model is relatively novel in developing countries, and the study sought strength to develop knowledge on the subject of the study.

Endogenous Time Variation in Vector Autoregressions

We introduce a new class of time-varying parameter vector autoregressions (TVP-VARs) where the identified structural innovations are allowed to influence the dynamics of the coefficients in these models. An estimation algorithm and a parametrization conducive to model comparison are also provided. We apply our framework to the US economy. Scenario analysis suggests that, once accounting for the influence of structural shocks on the autoregressive coefficients, the effects of monetary policy on economic activity are larger and more persistent than in an otherwise standard TVP-VAR. Our results also indicate that cost-push shocks play a prominent role in understanding historical changes in inflation-gap persistence.

Dynamic Effect of Structural Oil Price Shocks on New Energy Stock Markets

This paper decomposes daily crude oil shocks into demand shock, supply shock and risk shock. Then, it employs Diebold and Yilmaz connectedness index approach to explore the differences for the time-varying effect of different types of structural shocks on new energy stock markets in China, Europe and the United States during the period 10 June 2009–30 October 2018. The new findings show that: 1) There are time-varying features of structural shocks to all new energy markets. 2) The crude oil demand shock and risk shock have a large explanatory ability on the returns of all new energy stock markets, while the crude oil supply shock has a small impact. 3) The influences of crude oil demand shocks on the market returns of new energy in China, Europe and the United States are 1.31%, 8.64%, and 4.47%, respectively; however, the affection of crude oil risk shocks to the market returns of new energy in the same markets are 3.17%, 7.91%, and 21.51%, respectively. 4) The crude oil demand shock and supply shock have little impact on any new energy market volatilities, but the effects of crude oil risk shocks to China and the United States’ new energy market volatilities are 2.44% and 3.14%, respectively.

When Opportunity Knocks: Confronting Theory and Empirics About Dynamics of Gender Wage Inequality

We present empirical evidence that large structural shocks are followed by changes in labor market inequality. Specifically, we study short-run fluctuations in adjusted gender wage gaps (unequal pay for equal work) following episodes of structural shocks in the labor markets, using several decades of individual data for a wide selection of transition countries. We find that for cohorts who entered the labor market after the onset of transition. Labor market shocks lead to significant declines in the gender wage gap. This decrease is driven mostly by episodes experienced among cohorts who enter the labor market during the transition. By contrast, we fail to find any significant relation for cohorts already active in the labor market at the time of transition. We provide plausible explanations based on sociological and economic theories of inequality.