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Studies in Monetary Policy An Estimated New-Keynesian Model with Unemployment as Excess Supply of Labor joint work with Miguel Casares (Universidad Pública de Navarra) and Antonio Moreno (Universidad de Navarra) Abstract Wage stickiness is incorporated to a New-Keynesian model with variable capital in a way that generates endogenous unemployment fluctuations as the difference between aggregate labor supply and aggregate labor demand. After estimation with U.S. data, the implied second-moment statistics of the unemployment rate provide a reasonable match with those observed in the data. Our results also show that wage-push shocks, demand shifts and monetary policy shocks are the three major determinants of unemployment fluctuations. Compared to an estimated canonical DSGE model without unemployment: wage stickiness is higher, labor supply elasticity is lower, the slope of the New-Keynesian Phillips curve is flatter, and the importance of technology innovations on output growth variability increases. Data Revisions in the Estimation of DSGE models joint work with Miguel Casares (Universidad Pública de Navarra) Abstract Revisions of US macroeconomic data are not white-noise. They are persistent, correlated with real-time data, and with high variability (around 80% of volatility observed in US real-time data). Their business cycle effects are examined in an estimated DSGE model that distinguishes real-time data from final data. Both the consumption habit formation and the price indexation to lagged inflation fall significantly in the estimation. The model also shows that revision shocks of both output and inflation are expansionary because they occur when real-time published data are too low and the Fed reacts by cutting interest rates. Consumption revisions, by contrast, are countercyclical as consumption habits mirror the observed reduction in real-time consumption. Finally, revisions of the three variables explain 9.3% of changes of output in its long-run variance decomposition. On the Informational Role of Term Structure in the U.S. Monetary Policy Rule joint work with Ramón María-Dolores (Universidad de Murcia) and Juan Miguel Londoño (Tilburg University) Abstract This paper uses a structural approach based on the indirect inference principle to estimate a standard version of the new Keynesian monetary (NKM) model augmented with term structure using both revised and real-time data. The estimation results show that the term spread and policy inertia are both important determinants of the U.S. estimated monetary policy rule whereas the persistence of shocks plays a small but significant role when revised and real-time data of output and inflation are both considered. More importantly, the relative importance of term spread and persistent shocks in the policy rule and the shock transmission mechanism drastically change when it is taken into account that real-time data are not well behaved. Data Revisions and the Monetary Policy Rule: An analysis based on an extension of the basic New Keynesian model joint work with Ramón María-Dolores (Universidad de Murcia) and Juan Miguel Londoño (Tilburg University) Abstract This paper proposes an extended version of the basic New Keynesian monetary (NKM) model which contemplates revision processes of output and inflation data in order to assess the importance of data revisions on the estimated monetary policy rule parameters and the transmission of policy shocks. Our empirical evidence based on a structural econometric approach suggests that although the initial announcements of output and inflation are not rational forecasts of revised data on output and inflation, ignoring the presence of non well-behaved revision processes may not be a serious drawback in the analysis of monetary policy in this framework. New Keynesian model features that can reproduce lead, lag and persistence patterns joint work with Steve Cassou (Kansas State University) Abstract This paper uses a new method for describing dynamic comovement and persistence in economic time series which builds on the contemporaneous forecast error method developed in den Haan (2000). This data description method is then used to address issues in New Keynesian model performance in two ways. First, well known data patterns, such as output and inflation leads and lags and inflation persistence, are decomposed into forecast horizon components to give a more complete description of the data patterns. These results show that the well known lead and lag patterns between output and inflation arise mostly in the medium term forecasts horizons. Second, the data summary method is used to investigate a rich New Keynesian model with many modeling features to see which of these features can reproduce lead, lag and persistence patterns seen in the data. We show that a simple general equilibrium model with persistent IS curve shocks and persistent supply shocks can reproduce the lead, lag and persistence patterns seen in the data. Business Cycles and Trends Employment Comovements at the Sectoral Level over the Business Cycle joint work with Steve Cassou (Kansas State University) Abstract This paper extends the technique suggested by den Haan (2000) to investigate contemporaneous as well as lead and lag correlations among economic data for a range of forecast horizons. The technique provides a richer picture of the economic dynamics generating the data and allows one to investigate which variables lead or lag others, and whether the lead or lag pattern is short term or long term in nature. The technique is applied to monthly sectoral level employment data for the U.S. and shows that among the ten industrial sectors followed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, six tend to lead the other four. These six have high correlations indicating that the structural shocks generating the data movements are mostly in common. Among the four lagging industries, some lag by longer intervals than others and some have low correlations with the leading industries. These low correlations may indicate that these industries are partially influenced by structural shocks beyond those generating the six leading industries, but they also may indicate that lagging sectors feature a different transmission mechanism of shocks. Gauss Code of Employment Comovements at the Sectoral Level over the Business Cycle Stock Prices Abstract As a necessary condition for the validity of the present value model, the price-dividend ratio must be stationary. However, significant market episodes seem to provide evidence of prices significantly drifting apart from dividends while other episodes show prices anchoring back to dividends. This paper investigates the stationarity of this ratio in the context of a Markov-switching model à la Hamilton (1989) where an asymmetric speed of adjustment towards a unique attractor is introduced. A three-regime model displays the best regime identification and reveals that the first part of the 90's boom (1985-1995) and the post-war period are characterized by a stationary state featuring a slow reverting process to a relatively high attractor. Interestingly, the latter part of the 90's boom (1996-2000), characterized by a growing price-dividend ratio, is entirely attributed to a stationary regime featuring a highly reverting process to the attractor. Finally, the post-Lehman Brothers episode of the subprime crisis can be classified into a temporary nonstationary regime. Go to Home Page
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