This article estimates the benefits of reducing U.S. inflation below its current level when the government simultaneously raises another distortionary tax. Other researchers have suggested that reducing inflation would have fairly large benefits—from 1 to 3 percent of gross domestic product. But that result depends on the unrealistic assumption that the government would replace inflation with a lump-sum tax, one which does not affect people's incentives. If, instead, inflation is replaced with an increase in the labor income tax, then the welfare gains that can be expected from reducing inflation below its current level are much smaller—from one-third to one-half of 1 percent of gross domestic product.
{"title":"Another attempt to quantify the benefits of reducing inflation","authors":"R. Braun","doi":"10.21034/qr.1842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/qr.1842","url":null,"abstract":"This article estimates the benefits of reducing U.S. inflation below its current level when the government simultaneously raises another distortionary tax. Other researchers have suggested that reducing inflation would have fairly large benefits—from 1 to 3 percent of gross domestic product. But that result depends on the unrealistic assumption that the government would replace inflation with a lump-sum tax, one which does not affect people's incentives. If, instead, inflation is replaced with an increase in the labor income tax, then the welfare gains that can be expected from reducing inflation below its current level are much smaller—from one-third to one-half of 1 percent of gross domestic product.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"15 1","pages":"17-25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75042447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article is a progress report on research that attempts to include one type of market incompleteness and frictions in macroeconomic models. The focus of the research is the absence of insurance markets in which individual-specific risks may be insured against. The article describes some areas where this type of research has been and promises to be particularly useful, including consumption and saving, wealth distribution, asset markets, business cycles, and fiscal policies. The article also describes work in each of these areas that was presented at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in the fall of 1993. ; Reprinted in the Quarterly Review, Summer 1997 (v. 21, no. 3)
{"title":"Macroeconomics with frictions","authors":"Charles A. Pigott","doi":"10.21034/QR.1832","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1832","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a progress report on research that attempts to include one type of market incompleteness and frictions in macroeconomic models. The focus of the research is the absence of insurance markets in which individual-specific risks may be insured against. The article describes some areas where this type of research has been and promises to be particularly useful, including consumption and saving, wealth distribution, asset markets, business cycles, and fiscal policies. The article also describes work in each of these areas that was presented at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in the fall of 1993. ; Reprinted in the Quarterly Review, Summer 1997 (v. 21, no. 3)","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"97 1","pages":"24-40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82432786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1994-03-01DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_2
P. Kehoe, T. Kehoe
{"title":"Capturing NAFTA's impact with applied general equilibrium models","authors":"P. Kehoe, T. Kehoe","doi":"10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"18 1","pages":"17-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81673889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1994-03-01DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_1
P. Kehoe, T. Kehoe
{"title":"A Primer on Static Applied General Equilibrium Models","authors":"P. Kehoe, T. Kehoe","doi":"10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"40 1","pages":"2-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1994-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1007/978-94-009-0123-0_1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72531331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The way many dictators have been deposed in the 20th century resembles the way a parliamentary form of government emerged in 13th-century England. This medieval example is worth examining because the features that led to its political reform are particularly clear. Despite what many think, that reform cannot be understood simply as a shift in military power from ruler to subjects. Rather, understanding the reform requires understanding that the English king had recently acquired private information crucial to his subjects. Such private information became important after England lost Normandy to France, just before the king issued the Magna Carta (and publicly agreed to consult his subjects before taxing them). Under circumstances like these—when a threat to a society arises and significant private information about the threat develops—the society may need an arrangement for communication like parliament in order to attain economic efficiency.
{"title":"On the emergence of parliamentary government: the role of private information","authors":"E. Green","doi":"10.21034/QR.1711","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1711","url":null,"abstract":"The way many dictators have been deposed in the 20th century resembles the way a parliamentary form of government emerged in 13th-century England. This medieval example is worth examining because the features that led to its political reform are particularly clear. Despite what many think, that reform cannot be understood simply as a shift in military power from ruler to subjects. Rather, understanding the reform requires understanding that the English king had recently acquired private information crucial to his subjects. Such private information became important after England lost Normandy to France, just before the king issued the Magna Carta (and publicly agreed to consult his subjects before taxing them). Under circumstances like these—when a threat to a society arises and significant private information about the threat develops—the society may need an arrangement for communication like parliament in order to attain economic efficiency.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"26 1","pages":"2-16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78322362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, I suggest that incomplete markets and transaction costs are crucial for explaining the high equity premium and the low risk-free rate. I first demonstrate the failure of the complete frictionless markets model in explaining these return puzzles and then show how introducing incomplete markets and transaction costs can lead to success. Additionally, I explain how these features lead to predictions concerning individual consumptions, wealths, portfolios, and asset market transactions that are in better agreement with the facts than the predictions of the complete frictionless markets model.
{"title":"Explaining financial market facts: the importance of incomplete markets and transaction costs","authors":"E. Green, S. Aiyagari","doi":"10.21034/QR.1712","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1712","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I suggest that incomplete markets and transaction costs are crucial for explaining the high equity premium and the low risk-free rate. I first demonstrate the failure of the complete frictionless markets model in explaining these return puzzles and then show how introducing incomplete markets and transaction costs can lead to success. Additionally, I explain how these features lead to predictions concerning individual consumptions, wealths, portfolios, and asset market transactions that are in better agreement with the facts than the predictions of the complete frictionless markets model.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"523 ","pages":"17-31"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72506212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Why did states agree to a U.S. Constitution that prohibits them from issuing their own money? This article argues that two common answers to this question—a fear of inflation and a desire to control what money qualifies as legal tender—do not fit the facts. The article proposes a better answer: a desire to form a viable monetary union that both eliminates the variability of exchange rates between various forms of money and avoids the seigniorage problem that otherwise occurs in a fixed exchange rate system. Supporting evidence is offered from three periods of U.S. history: the colonial period (1690–1776), the Revolutionary War (1776–83), and the Confederation period (1783–89). This article is adapted from a chapter prepared for a forthcoming book, Varieties of Monetary Reforms: Lessons and Experiences on the Road to Monetary Union, edited by Pierre Siklos, to be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers.
{"title":"In order to form a more perfect monetary union","authors":"Arthur J. Rolnick, B. Smith, Warren E. Weber","doi":"10.21034/QR.1741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1741","url":null,"abstract":"Why did states agree to a U.S. Constitution that prohibits them from issuing their own money? This article argues that two common answers to this question—a fear of inflation and a desire to control what money qualifies as legal tender—do not fit the facts. The article proposes a better answer: a desire to form a viable monetary union that both eliminates the variability of exchange rates between various forms of money and avoids the seigniorage problem that otherwise occurs in a fixed exchange rate system. Supporting evidence is offered from three periods of U.S. history: the colonial period (1690–1776), the Revolutionary War (1776–83), and the Confederation period (1783–89). This article is adapted from a chapter prepared for a forthcoming book, Varieties of Monetary Reforms: Lessons and Experiences on the Road to Monetary Union, edited by Pierre Siklos, to be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"913 1","pages":"2-13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72680678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jeremy Greenwood, Richard Rogerson, Randall Wright
The implications of adding household production to an otherwise standard real business cycle model are explored in this article. The model developed treats the business and household sectors symmetrically. In particular, both sectors use capital and labor to produce output. The article finds that the household production model can outperform the standard model in accounting for several aspects of U.S. business cycle fluctuations. ; This article is a summary of a chapter prepared for a forthcoming book, Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, edited by Thomas F. Cooley, to be published by Princeton University Press.
本文探讨了将家庭生产添加到标准真实商业周期模型中的含义。该模型对称地对待企业和家庭部门。特别是,这两个部门都使用资本和劳动力来生产产出。本文发现,在考虑美国经济周期波动的几个方面,家庭生产模型可以优于标准模型。;本文是为即将出版的新书《商业周期研究前沿》(Frontiers of Business Cycle Research)准备的一章摘要,该书由托马斯·f·库利(Thomas F. Cooley)编辑,将由普林斯顿大学出版社出版。
{"title":"Putting home economics into macroeconomics","authors":"Jeremy Greenwood, Richard Rogerson, Randall Wright","doi":"10.21034/QR.1731","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1731","url":null,"abstract":"The implications of adding household production to an otherwise standard real business cycle model are explored in this article. The model developed treats the business and household sectors symmetrically. In particular, both sectors use capital and labor to produce output. The article finds that the household production model can outperform the standard model in accounting for several aspects of U.S. business cycle fluctuations. ; This article is a summary of a chapter prepared for a forthcoming book, Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, edited by Thomas F. Cooley, to be published by Princeton University Press.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"62 1","pages":"2-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83694900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article analyzes some of the potential effects of increased international financial integration within a simple two-country model. In the model, the article considers a switch in the menu of internationally traded financial securities from bonds to complete contingent claims and examines the impact of this switch on the stochastic properties, including the cross-country correlations, of standard macroeconomic aggregates like output, consumption, and labor effort, as well as the trade balance.
{"title":"The macroeconomic effects of world trade in financial assets","authors":"Harold L. Cole","doi":"10.21034/QR.1732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1732","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes some of the potential effects of increased international financial integration within a simple two-country model. In the model, the article considers a switch in the menu of internationally traded financial securities from bonds to complete contingent claims and examines the impact of this switch on the stochastic properties, including the cross-country correlations, of standard macroeconomic aggregates like output, consumption, and labor effort, as well as the trade balance.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"69 1","pages":"12-21"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82691017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study describes recent attempts to solve what Lucas has called the "problem of economic development"—the problem of accounting for the great disparity in per-capita output across countries. The study examines a number of economic development theories, including the neoclassical theory of growth, which relies on cross-country differences in physical capital per person to explain the disparity, and newer theories, which stress cross-country differences in human capital, or education. It is argued that these models cannot account for observed per-capita output diversity. More promising theories are those that stress differences in incentives for entrepreneurs to create businesses (i.e., business capital) and adopt new technologies.
{"title":"Early progress on the \"problem of economic development\"","authors":"James A. Schmitz","doi":"10.21034/QR.1722","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21034/QR.1722","url":null,"abstract":"This study describes recent attempts to solve what Lucas has called the \"problem of economic development\"—the problem of accounting for the great disparity in per-capita output across countries. The study examines a number of economic development theories, including the neoclassical theory of growth, which relies on cross-country differences in physical capital per person to explain the disparity, and newer theories, which stress cross-country differences in human capital, or education. It is argued that these models cannot account for observed per-capita output diversity. More promising theories are those that stress differences in incentives for entrepreneurs to create businesses (i.e., business capital) and adopt new technologies.","PeriodicalId":78784,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly review","volume":"17 1","pages":"17-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1993-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87151059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}