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1 – 10 of over 48000Provides an overview of the real business cycle research agenda, tackling the main theoretical and empirical issues. Concludes that although this methodological approach has been…
Abstract
Provides an overview of the real business cycle research agenda, tackling the main theoretical and empirical issues. Concludes that although this methodological approach has been popular in terms of the number of papers published, it has not been completely convincing in providing a theory of the business cycle.
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David G. McMillan and Alan E.H. Speight
Reappraises the stylised facts of the contemporary UK business cycle and the robustness of associated sample moments to detrending under the Hodrick‐Prescott (HP) filter and an…
Abstract
Reappraises the stylised facts of the contemporary UK business cycle and the robustness of associated sample moments to detrending under the Hodrick‐Prescott (HP) filter and an unobserved components (UC) model based on the structural time series mode of Harvey and advocated in this context by Harvey and Jaeger. For the majority of series considered, findings broadly confirm the earlier HP‐based results of Blackburn and Ravn, but important differences with previous results are reported for labour productivity, the real wage and the real interest rate. However, under neither detrending method are the anticipated cross‐correlations between output and the pivotal variables in standard real business cycle (RBC) models (labour productivity, real wages, the real interest rate and nominal variables) simultaneously confirmed. Indeed, on balance, these results may be interpreted as more suggestive of an orthodox demand‐led or policy‐induced cycle.
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Looks at the impact John Maynard Keynes and the movement (Keynesian) he started had on the theory and practice of economics in the 1930s and onwards. Identifies respective…
Abstract
Looks at the impact John Maynard Keynes and the movement (Keynesian) he started had on the theory and practice of economics in the 1930s and onwards. Identifies respective problems about capitalism and discusses them in depth. States that the monetary and fiscal policies recommended by Keynes have helped the West escape severe social consequences in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Goes on to show how economists after Keynes carried his work forward and upward in the 1940s and 1950s. Closes by stating there is a further, third revolution in economic thinking on the rise.
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Cleyton Farias and Marcelo Silva
The authors explore the hypothesis that some movements in commodity prices are anticipated (news shocks) and can trigger aggregate fluctuations in small open emerging economies…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors explore the hypothesis that some movements in commodity prices are anticipated (news shocks) and can trigger aggregate fluctuations in small open emerging economies. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors build a multi-sector dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with endogenous commodity production. There are five exogenous processes: a country-specific interest rate shock that responds to commodity price fluctuations, a productivity (TFP) shock for each sector and a commodity price shock. Both TFP and commodity price shocks are composed of unanticipated and anticipated components.
Findings
The authors show that news shocks to commodity prices lead to higher output, investment and consumption, and a countercyclical movement in the trade-balance-to-output ratio. The authors also show that commodity price news shocks explain about 24% of output aggregate fluctuations in the small open economy.
Practical implications
Given the importance of both anticipated and unanticipated commodity price shocks, policymakers should pay attention to developments in commodity markets when designing policies to attenuate the business cycles. Future research should investigate the design of optimal fiscal and monetary policies in SOE subject to news shocks in commodity prices.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the knowledge of the sources of fluctuations in emerging economies highlighting the importance of a new source: news shocks in commodity prices.
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The purpose of this paper is to survey literature on macroeconomic nonlinear dynamics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to survey literature on macroeconomic nonlinear dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper identifies five influential types of models where the possible generation of endogenous cycles and chaotic motion arises. First, the frameworks that make use of the one‐hump logistic type equation; second, the models inspired on the growth literature of the 1940s; third, intertemporal utility maximization problems with increasing returns; fourth, models that can be represented as piecewise dynamic maps; and, fifth, bounded rationality – heterogeneous expectations setups.
Findings
The attention will be mainly focused on the theme of business cycles; an interpretation of the deterministic real business cycle model with increasing returns is proposed and a graphical analysis of the underlying system shows that strange attractors are observable for specific sets of parameter values.
Practical implications
The study of endogenous cycles in macroeconomic literature has important implications for policy: if fluctuations are due to deterministic reasons this may imply that by manipulating policy parameters governments may be able to change the qualitative nature of the economy's dynamics.
Originality/value
The paper gives a comprehensive view of nonlinear dynamics in macroeconomics. It shows that various relevant subjects might be addressed in this kind of models, e.g. economic growth, asset pricing, business cycles, consumption decisions, among others.
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This paper aims to revisit the assumption of the cyclicality of the property-liability insurance market and identify a scenario in which the so-called underwriting cycles are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to revisit the assumption of the cyclicality of the property-liability insurance market and identify a scenario in which the so-called underwriting cycles are unpredictable, according to a dynamic cash flow model which generates non-cyclical output dynamics.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is on the intersection of real business cycle models and financial cycles. The authors construct a dynamic model of an insurer’s cash flows with stochastic loss shocks and capacity constraints, in which loss shocks have a dual impact on both underwriting profits and access to external capital. They simulate the insurer’s optimal output responses to loss shocks, including output movements in underwriting coverage and external capital, to explore the source of unpredictable underwriting cycles through linear quadratic approximation in the model economy.
Findings
The authors find that the effect of loss shocks on the insurer’s cash flows could spread out and amplify over time because of the dynamic interaction between its underwriting capability and ability to raise external capital. This dynamic interaction can generate a non-cyclical pattern of changes in underwriting coverage and access to external capital in the benchmark economy. Applied to different experimental economies, the simulation results reveal that the determinants of the level of output fluctuations include the size of loss shocks, the sensitivity of capital market to loss shocks and the tightness of capital market.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there has been no attempt to study insurance output cyclicality with a dynamic cash flow model based upon the real business cycle literature, in which the dynamic interaction between underwriting and access to external capital because of loss shocks has an amplifying effect on output markets. This paper contributes to the current body of research by being able to simulate and show the insurance output dynamics resulting from the amplifying effect under capacity constraints.
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Seeks to present the detailed empirical study of contemporary business fluctuations in Korea. Follows the methodology of modern business cycle research in conducting an…
Abstract
Seeks to present the detailed empirical study of contemporary business fluctuations in Korea. Follows the methodology of modern business cycle research in conducting an atheoretical statistical analysis of the cyclical properties of key aggregate time series. Shows, by analysis, that many of the cyclical regularities documented for developed countries also exist in Korean business cycles. Regularities include the relative volatilities of many expenditure components and the co‐movement of real and nominal variables with output. Particularly of note is the counter‐cyclicality of prices. Posits that counter‐cyclicality of prices signals the importance of supply side shocks in Korean business fluctuations. Reveals, in the analysis, that the fluctuation in the import price of oil may have been the major source of Korean business cycles. States that analysis has also revealed that there are some idiosyncrasies in Korean business cycles. Net exports are significantly pro‐cyclical and lead the cycle for most of the period under study.
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This paper aims to study the structural dynamic behaviour of the depositors, banks and investors and the role of banks in the business cycles. The authors test the hypothesis: do…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the structural dynamic behaviour of the depositors, banks and investors and the role of banks in the business cycles. The authors test the hypothesis: do banks’ behaviour make oscillations in the economy via interest rate?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors dichotomized banking activities into two markets: deposit and loan. The first market forms deposit interest rate, and the second market forms credit interest rate. The authors show that these two types of interest rates have non-synchronized structures, and that is why money sector fluctuation starts. As a result, the fluctuation is transferred to the real economy through saving and investment functions.
Findings
The empirical results show that in the USA, the banking system creates fluctuations in money and real economy, as well as through interest rates. Short-term interest rates had complex roots in their characteristic, while medium and long-term interest rates, though they were second-order difference equations, had real characteristic roots. However, short-term interest rates are the source of oscillation and form the business cycles.
Research limitations/implications
The authors tested the hypothesis for USA economy, while it needs to be tested for other economies as well.
Practical implications
The results show that though the source of fluctuations in the real economy comes from short-term interest rates, medium- and long-term interest rates dampen real economy fluctuations and also work as economic stabilisers.
Originality/value
Regarding the applied method, the topic is new.
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George Matysiak and Sotiris Tsolacos
This paper looks at the application of economic and financial series in forecasting IPD monthly rental series. The approach follows that employed in classical business cycle work…
Abstract
This paper looks at the application of economic and financial series in forecasting IPD monthly rental series. The approach follows that employed in classical business cycle work that seeks to decompose series into trend, cyclical and noise components and is the first time that it has been applied to IPD monthly data. Trend extraction is obtained by means of the Hodrick‐Prescott filter. Several potential indicator series are investigated together with their lead characteristics. The short‐term forecasts of these series are compared with naïve methods and a composite indicator. The results show the naïve methods, especially the Holt‐Winters method, and certain leading indicator series produce satisfactory short‐term forecasts, but the success is both sector and time‐dependent. This suggests that it is a worthwhile endeavour in identifying potential leading indicator series. The methodology presented in this paper should be seen as complementing existing approaches that employ standard econometric procedures in modelling rental growth.
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The author augments an otherwise standard business cycle model with a richer government sector and adds money-in-utility (MIU) considerations to study economic fluctuations.
Abstract
Purpose
The author augments an otherwise standard business cycle model with a richer government sector and adds money-in-utility (MIU) considerations to study economic fluctuations.
Design/methodology/approach
More specifically, real money balances enter in a non-separable way with consumption and leisure. This specification is then calibrated to Bulgarian data after the introduction of the currency board (1999–2020) gives a role to money in accentuating economic fluctuations.
Findings
This novel mechanism allows the framework to reproduce – better than the real business cycle (RBC) model – the observed variability and correlations among model variables, and those characterizing the labor market in particular. In addition, money is non-neutral and affects aggregate economic activity.
Originality/value
This is the first micro-founded monetary-DSGE (dynamic stochastic general equilibrium) model on Bulgaria trying to explain the role of money for economic fluctuations.
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