– Current Unpublished Working Papers
The Role of Capital Service-Life in a Model with Heterogenous Labor and Vintage Capital
2009-24 :: With Marquis and Tantivongy :: October 2009
+ abstract We examine how the economy responds to both disembodied and embodied technology shocks in a model with vintage capital. We focus on what happens when there is a change in the number of vintages of capital that are in use at any one time and on what happens when there is a change in the persistence of the shocks hitting the economy. The data suggest that these kinds of changes took place in the U.S. economy in the 1990s, when the pace of embodied technical progress appears to have accelerated. We find that embodied technology shocks lead to greater variability (of
output, investment and labor allocations) than disembodied shocks of the same size. On the other hand, a decrease in the number of vintages in use at any time (such as is likely to occur when the pace of technical progress accelerates) tends to reduce the volatility of output and also to differentiate the initial response of the economy
to the two shocks.
Survey Measures of Expected Inflation and the Inflation Process
2009-10 :: May 2009
+ abstract This paper uses data from surveys of expected inflation to learn how the expectations formation processes of households and professionals have changed following a change in the inflation
process in the early part of this decade. Households do not appear to have recognized the change in the process, and are placing substantially more weight than appears warranted on recent
inflation data when forming expectations about inflation over the next year. Professional forecasters do appear to have changed how they predict inflation in recent years, in a way that appears consistent, at first, with the finding that the 'core' inflation process has not changed as much as the 'headline' inflation process has. But the professionals appear to be placing too much weight on lagged core inflation data, and over recent sample periods professional forecasts of headline CPI inflation are noticeably worse than the alternatives. Some other evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that they are now focusing on the core CPI.
Productivity Shocks in a Model with Vintage Capital and Heterogeneous Labor
2007-06 :: With Marquis :: January 2007
+ abstract We construct a vintage capital model in which worker skills lie along a continuum and workers can be paired with different vintages (as technology
evolves) under a matching rule of "best worker with the best machine."
Labor reallocation in response to technology shocks has two key implications for the wage premium. First, it limits both the magnitude and duration of change in the wage premium following a (permanent) embodied technology shock, so empirically plausible shocks do not lead to the kind of increases in the wage premium observed in the U.S. during the 1980s and early 1990s (though an increase in labor force heterogeneity does). Second, positive disembodied technology shocks tend to push up the wage premium as well, and while this effect is small, it does mean that a higher premium does not provide unambiguous information about the underlying shock.
Labor reallocation also means that if embodied technology comes to play
a larger role in long-run growth, investment and savings tend to fall in steady state, with little effect on output and employment, enabling the household to increase consumption without sacrificing leisure. The short run effects are more conventional: permanent shocks to disembodied technology induce a strong wealth effect that reduces savings and induces a consumption boom while permanent shocks to embodied technology induce dominant substitution effects and an expansion characterized by an investment boom.
Accounting for the Secular "Decline" of U.S. Manufacturing
2005-18 :: With Marquis :: September 2006
+ abstract There has been considerable debate about the causes of the "decline"
of U.S. manufacturing over the post-war period. We show that the
behavior of employment, prices and output in manufacturing relative to
services over this period can be explained by a two-sector growth model
in which productivity shocks are the only driving forces. The data also
suggest that households are unwilling to substitute goods for services
(the estimated elasticity of substitution is statistically indistinguishable
from zero), so the economy adjusts to differential productivity growth
entirely by reallocating labor across sectors.
Some Implications of Using Prices to Measure Productivity in a Two-Sector Growth Model
2001-10 :: With Marquis :: July 2003
Common Shocks and Currency Crises
2000-05 :: With Moreno :: April 2000
– Published Articles (Refereed Journals and Volumes)
On Using Relative Prices to Measure Capital Specific Technological Progress
Forthcoming in Journal of Macroeconomics :: With Marquis
+ abstract Recently, Greenwood, Hercowitz, and Krusell (GHK) have identified the relative price of (new) capital with capital-specific technological progress. In a two-sector growth model, however, the relative price of capital equals the ratio of the productivity processes in the two sectors. Restrictions from this model are used with data on wages and prices to construct measures of productivity growth and test the GHK identification, which is easily rejected by the data. This raises questions
about various measures of the contribution that capital-specific technological progress might make to the economy. This identification also induces a negative correlation between the resulting measures of capital-specific and economy-wide technological change, which potentially explains why papers employing this identification find that capital-specific technological change accelerated in the mid-1970s. We impose structure on the productivity measures based on their long-run
behavior and find evidence of a slowdown in productivity in the 1970s that is common to both sectors and an acceleration in the mid-1990s that is exclusive to the capital sector.
Time-Varying Equilibrium Real Rates and Monetary Policy Analysis
Forthcoming in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control :: With Wu
+ abstract Although it is generally recognized that the equilibrium real interest rate (ERR) varies over time, most recent work on policy analysis has been carried out under the assumption that this rate is constant. We show how this assumption can affect inferences about the conduct of policy in two different areas. First, if the ERR moves in the same direction as the trend growth rate (as is suggested by theory), the probability that an unperceived change in trend growth will lead to a substantial change in inflation is noticeably lower than is suggested by recent analyses (of inflation in the 1970s, for example) that assume a constant ERR. Second, if the monetary authority targets a time varying ERR but the econometrician assumes otherwise, estimated policy rules will tend to exaggerate the degree of interest rate smoothing as well as the weight that the monetary authority places upon inflation.
Forward-Looking Behavior and Optimal Discretionary Monetary Policy
Economics Letters 81(2), November 2003, 249-256 :: With Lansing
+ abstract This paper derives a closed-form solution for the optimal discretionary monetary policy in a small macroeconomic model that allows for varying degrees of forward-looking behavior. We show that a more forward-looking
aggregate demand equation serves to attenuate the response to inflation and the output gap in the optimal interest rate rule. In contrast, a more forward-looking real interest rate equation serves to magnify the response to both variables. A more forward-looking Phillips curve serves to attenuate the response to inflation but magnify the response to the output gap. The results have implications for studies that attempt to reconcile estimated versions of the central bank's policy rule with optimal discretionary monetary policy. In particular, a successful reconciliation is likely to require a different degree of forward-looking behavior in each part of the model economy.
The Cyclical Behavior of Prices: Interpreting the Evidence
Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, August 1995, 789-797 :: With Judd
– FRBSF Publications
Talking about Tomorrow's Monetary Policy Today
Economic Letter 2009-35 :: November 9, 2009 :: With Chehal
Predicting Crises, Part I: Do Coming Crises Cast Their Shadows Before?
Economic Letter 2009-29 :: September 21, 2009
Unanchored Expectations? Interpreting the Evidence from Inflation Surveys
Economic Letter 2008-23 :: July 25, 2008 :: With Huang
Changing Productivity Trends
Economic Letter 2007-25 :: August 31, 2007
Will Fast Productivity Growth Persist?
Economic Letter 2007-09 :: April 6, 2007 :: With Fernald and Thipphavong
Is a Recession Imminent?
Economic Letter 2006-32 :: November 24, 2006 :: With Fernald
Inflation Targets and Inflation Expectations: Some Evidence from the Recent Oil Shocks
Economic Letter 2006-22 :: September 1, 2006 :: With Tjosvold
Why Hasn't the Jump in Oil Prices Led to a Recession?
Economic Letter 2005-31 :: November 18, 2005 :: With Fernald
Oil Price Shocks and Inflation
Economic Letter 2005-28 :: October 28, 2005
Why Has Output Become Less Volatile?
Economic Letter 2005-24 :: September 16, 2005
Technological Change
Economic Letter 2003-08 :: March 21, 2003
Productivity Shocks and the Unemployment Rate
Economic Review :: 2003
Technical Change and the Dispersion of Wages
Economic Letter 2002-23 :: August 9, 2002
Predicting When the Economy Will Turn
Economic Letter 2002-07 :: March 15, 2002 :: With Loungani
Unemployment and Productivity
Economic Letter 2001-28 :: October 12, 2001
Recent Research on Sticky Prices
Economic Letter 2001-24 :: August 24, 2001
Information Technology and Productivity
Economic Letter 2000-34 :: November 10, 2000 :: With Cornwell
Evaluating the Stock Market
Economic Letter 2000-20 :: June 23, 2000
» View FRBSF Publications prior to 2000
– Other Works
Financial Change and the Design of Monetary Policy: Lessons from the U.S. Experience
In Structural Change and Economic Modeling, Seventh Pacific Basin Central Bank Conference on Economic Modeling, ed. by Rankin :: Sydney, Australia, 1986. 153-178 :: With Judd and Motley
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