We show that the effectiveness of redistribution policy is tied to how much inflation it generates, and thereby to monetary‐fiscal adjustments that ultimately finance the transfers. In the monetary regime, taxes increase to finance transfers while in the fiscal regime, inflation rises, imposing inflation taxes on public debt holders. We show analytically that the fiscal regime generates larger and more persistent inflation than the monetary regime. In a two‐sector model, we quantify the effects of the CARES Act in a COVID recession. We find that transfer multipliers are larger, and that moreover, redistribution is Pareto improving, under the fiscal regime.
{"title":"Redistribution and the monetary‐fiscal policy mix","authors":"Saroj Bhattarai, Jae Won Lee, Choongryul Yang","doi":"10.3982/qe2030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe2030","url":null,"abstract":"We show that the effectiveness of redistribution policy is tied to how much inflation it generates, and thereby to monetary‐fiscal adjustments that ultimately finance the transfers. In the monetary regime, taxes increase to finance transfers while in the fiscal regime, inflation rises, imposing inflation taxes on public debt holders. We show analytically that the fiscal regime generates larger and more persistent inflation than the monetary regime. In a two‐sector model, we quantify the effects of the CARES Act in a COVID recession. We find that transfer multipliers are larger, and that moreover, redistribution is Pareto improving, under the fiscal regime.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135733718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A core mechanism of unified growth theory is that accelerating technological progress induces mass education and, through interaction with child quantity‐quality substitution, a decline in fertility. Using unique new data for 21 OECD countries over the period 1750–2000, we test, for the first time, the validity of this core mechanism of unified growth theory. We measure a country's technological progress as patents per capita, R&D intensity, and investment in machinery, equipment, and intellectual property products. While controlling for confounders, such as income growth, mortality, and the gender wage gap, we establish (1) a significant impact of technological progress on education (positive) and fertility (negative); (2) that accelerating technological progress stimulated the fertility transition; and (3) that the baseline results are supported in 2SLS regressions using genetic‐distance weighted foreign patent‐intensity, compulsory schooling years, and minimum working age as instruments.
{"title":"Testing unified growth theory: Technological progress and the child quantity‐quality tradeoff","authors":"Jakob Brøchner Madsen, Holger Strulik","doi":"10.3982/qe1751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe1751","url":null,"abstract":"A core mechanism of unified growth theory is that accelerating technological progress induces mass education and, through interaction with child quantity‐quality substitution, a decline in fertility. Using unique new data for 21 OECD countries over the period 1750–2000, we test, for the first time, the validity of this core mechanism of unified growth theory. We measure a country's technological progress as patents per capita, R&D intensity, and investment in machinery, equipment, and intellectual property products. While controlling for confounders, such as income growth, mortality, and the gender wage gap, we establish (1) a significant impact of technological progress on education (positive) and fertility (negative); (2) that accelerating technological progress stimulated the fertility transition; and (3) that the baseline results are supported in 2SLS regressions using genetic‐distance weighted foreign patent‐intensity, compulsory schooling years, and minimum working age as instruments.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136297297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We develop an importance sampler for sign restricted Bayesian structural vector autoregressive models. The algorithm nests as a special case the sampler associated with the popular Normal inverse Wishart Uniform prior, while allowing to move beyond such prior in medium sized models. We then propose a prior on contemporaneous impulse responses that provides flexibility on the magnitude and shape of the impact responses. We illustrate the quantitative relevance of the choice of the prior in an application to US monetary policy shocks. We find that the real effects of monetary policy shocks are stronger under our proposed prior than in the Normal inverse Wishart Uniform setup.
{"title":"A new posterior sampler for Bayesian structural vector autoregressive models","authors":"Martin Bruns, Michele Piffer","doi":"10.3982/qe2207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe2207","url":null,"abstract":"We develop an importance sampler for sign restricted Bayesian structural vector autoregressive models. The algorithm nests as a special case the sampler associated with the popular Normal inverse Wishart Uniform prior, while allowing to move beyond such prior in medium sized models. We then propose a prior on contemporaneous impulse responses that provides flexibility on the magnitude and shape of the impact responses. We illustrate the quantitative relevance of the choice of the prior in an application to US monetary policy shocks. We find that the real effects of monetary policy shocks are stronger under our proposed prior than in the Normal inverse Wishart Uniform setup.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"258 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135561041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Capital reallocation between firms is procyclical and leads to variations in measured aggregate productivity. In this paper, we ask how much of the cyclical variation in measured productivity is the consequence of capital reallocation. We build a heterogeneous‐firm model to study the effects of exogenous shocks to total factor productivity (TFP) and to the costs of reallocation. These shocks cause an endogenous cyclicality of measured aggregate productivity. Only a model driven by exogenous TFP shocks is able to generate both data‐consistent cyclical movements in reallocation and sizeable variations in measured aggregate productivity. We find that capital reallocation does not play a major role in amplifying aggregate productivity variations over the business cycle.
{"title":"Capital reallocation and the cyclicality of aggregate productivity","authors":"Russell W. Cooper, Immo Schott","doi":"10.3982/qe1892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe1892","url":null,"abstract":"Capital reallocation between firms is procyclical and leads to variations in measured aggregate productivity. In this paper, we ask how much of the cyclical variation in measured productivity is the consequence of capital reallocation. We build a heterogeneous‐firm model to study the effects of exogenous shocks to total factor productivity (TFP) and to the costs of reallocation. These shocks cause an endogenous cyclicality of measured aggregate productivity. Only a model driven by exogenous TFP shocks is able to generate both data‐consistent cyclical movements in reallocation and sizeable variations in measured aggregate productivity. We find that capital reallocation does not play a major role in amplifying aggregate productivity variations over the business cycle.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135562012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We use a dynamic panel Tobit model with heteroskedasticity to generate forecasts for a large cross‐section of short time series of censored observations. Our fully Bayesian approach allows us to flexibly estimate the cross‐sectional distribution of heterogeneous coefficients and then implicitly use this distribution as prior to construct Bayes forecasts for the individual time series. In addition to density forecasts, we construct set forecasts that explicitly target the average coverage probability for the cross‐section. We present a novel application in which we forecast bank‐level loan charge‐off rates for small banks.
{"title":"Forecasting with a panel Tobit model","authors":"Laura Liu, Hyungsik Roger Moon, Frank Schorfheide","doi":"10.3982/qe1505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe1505","url":null,"abstract":"We use a dynamic panel Tobit model with heteroskedasticity to generate forecasts for a large cross‐section of short time series of censored observations. Our fully Bayesian approach allows us to flexibly estimate the cross‐sectional distribution of heterogeneous coefficients and then implicitly use this distribution as prior to construct Bayes forecasts for the individual time series. In addition to density forecasts, we construct set forecasts that explicitly target the average coverage probability for the cross‐section. We present a novel application in which we forecast bank‐level loan charge‐off rates for small banks.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136297310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ali Hortaçsu, Olivia R. Natan, Hayden Parsley, Timothy Schwieg, Kevin R. Williams
We propose a demand estimation method that allows for a large number of zero‐ sale observations, rich unobserved heterogeneity, and endogenous prices. We do so by modeling small market sizes through Poisson arrivals. Each of these arriving consumers solves a standard discrete choice problem. We present a Bayesian IV estimation approach that addresses sampling error in product shares and scales well to rich data environments. The data requirements are traditional market‐level data as well as a measure of market sizes or consumer arrivals. After presenting simulation studies, we demonstrate the method in an empirical application of air travel demand.
{"title":"Demand estimation with infrequent purchases and small market sizes","authors":"Ali Hortaçsu, Olivia R. Natan, Hayden Parsley, Timothy Schwieg, Kevin R. Williams","doi":"10.3982/qe2147","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe2147","url":null,"abstract":"We propose a demand estimation method that allows for a large number of zero‐ sale observations, rich unobserved heterogeneity, and endogenous prices. We do so by modeling small market sizes through Poisson arrivals. Each of these arriving consumers solves a standard discrete choice problem. We present a Bayesian IV estimation approach that addresses sampling error in product shares and scales well to rich data environments. The data requirements are traditional market‐level data as well as a measure of market sizes or consumer arrivals. After presenting simulation studies, we demonstrate the method in an empirical application of air travel demand.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135561051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We use an analytically tractable heterogeneous‐agent (HANK) version of the standard New Keynesian model to show how the size of fiscal multipliers depends on (i) the distribution of factor incomes, and (ii) the source of nominal rigidities. With sticky prices but flexible wages, the standard representative‐agent (RANK) model predicts large multipliers because profits fall after a fiscal stimulus and the resulting negative income effect makes the representative worker work harder. Our HANK model, where workers do not own stock, and thus do not receive profit income, predicts smaller fiscal multipliers. In fact, they are smaller with sticky prices than with flexible prices. When wages are the source of nominal rigidity, in contrast, fiscal multipliers are close to one, independently of income heterogeneity and price stickiness.
{"title":"Fiscal multipliers: A heterogenous‐agent perspective","authors":"Tobias Broer, Per Krusell, Erik Öberg","doi":"10.3982/qe1901","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe1901","url":null,"abstract":"We use an analytically tractable heterogeneous‐agent (HANK) version of the standard New Keynesian model to show how the size of fiscal multipliers depends on (i) the distribution of factor incomes, and (ii) the source of nominal rigidities. With sticky prices but flexible wages, the standard representative‐agent (RANK) model predicts large multipliers because profits fall after a fiscal stimulus and the resulting negative income effect makes the representative worker work harder. Our HANK model, where workers do not own stock, and thus do not receive profit income, predicts smaller fiscal multipliers. In fact, they are smaller with sticky prices than with flexible prices. When wages are the source of nominal rigidity, in contrast, fiscal multipliers are close to one, independently of income heterogeneity and price stickiness.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135733716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We estimate a production‐based general equilibrium model featuring demand‐ and supply‐side uncertainty and an endogenous term premium. Using term structure and macroeconomic data, we find sizable effects of uncertainty on risk premia and business cycle fluctuations. Both demand‐ and supply‐side uncertainty imply large contractions in real activity and an increase in term premia, but supply‐side uncertainty has larger effects on inflation and investment. We introduce a novel analytical decomposition to illustrate how multiple distinct endogenous risk wedges account for these differences. Supply and demand uncertainty are strongly correlated in the beginning of our sample, but decouple after the Great Recession.
{"title":"The origins and effects of macroeconomic uncertainty","authors":"Francesco Bianchi, Howard Kung, Mikhail Tirskikh","doi":"10.3982/qe1979","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe1979","url":null,"abstract":"We estimate a production‐based general equilibrium model featuring demand‐ and supply‐side uncertainty and an endogenous term premium. Using term structure and macroeconomic data, we find sizable effects of uncertainty on risk premia and business cycle fluctuations. Both demand‐ and supply‐side uncertainty imply large contractions in real activity and an increase in term premia, but supply‐side uncertainty has larger effects on inflation and investment. We introduce a novel analytical decomposition to illustrate how multiple distinct endogenous risk wedges account for these differences. Supply and demand uncertainty are strongly correlated in the beginning of our sample, but decouple after the Great Recession.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136297305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Keynes (1921) and Ellsberg (1961) have articulated an aversion toward betting on an urn containing balls of two colors of unknown proportion to one with a 50–50 composition. Keynes views this as reflecting different preferences for bets arising from different sources of uncertainty. Ellsberg describes this as weighting the priors arising from the unknown urn pessimistically. In two experiments, we observe substantial links between attitude toward almost‐objective uncertainty and attitudes toward multiple‐prior uncertainties in terms of ambiguity and its corresponding compound risk. Our findings point to a shared component across domains of uncertainty and motivate the need for further theoretical development.
{"title":"Ellsberg meets Keynes at an urn","authors":"S. Chew, Bin Miao, Songfa Zhong","doi":"10.3982/qe2253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3982/qe2253","url":null,"abstract":"Keynes (1921) and Ellsberg (1961) have articulated an aversion toward betting on an urn containing balls of two colors of unknown proportion to one with a 50–50 composition. Keynes views this as reflecting different preferences for bets arising from different sources of uncertainty. Ellsberg describes this as weighting the priors arising from the unknown urn pessimistically. In two experiments, we observe substantial links between attitude toward almost‐objective uncertainty and attitudes toward multiple‐prior uncertainties in terms of ambiguity and its corresponding compound risk. Our findings point to a shared component across domains of uncertainty and motivate the need for further theoretical development.","PeriodicalId":46811,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative Economics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70361549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}