Skewed Business Cycles

Skewed Business Cycles PDF Author: Sergio Salgado
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Using firm-level panel data from the US Census Bureau and almost fifty other countries, we show that the skewness of the growth rates of employment, sales, and productivity is procyclical. In particular, during recessions, they display a large left tail of negative growth rates (and during booms, a large right tail of positive growth rates). We find similar results at the industry level: industries with falling growth rates see more left-skewed growth rates of firm sales, employment, and productivity. We then build a heterogeneous-agent model in which entrepreneurs face shocks with time-varying skewness that matches the firm-level distributions we document for the United States. Our quantitative results show that a negative shock to the skewness of firms' productivity growth (keeping the mean and variance constant) generates a persistent drop in output, investment, hiring, and consumption. This suggests the rising risk of large negative firm-level shocks could be an important factor driving recessions.

Skewed Business Cycles

Skewed Business Cycles PDF Author: Sergio Salgado
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Using firm-level panel data from the US Census Bureau and almost fifty other countries, we show that the skewness of the growth rates of employment, sales, and productivity is procyclical. In particular, during recessions, they display a large left tail of negative growth rates (and during booms, a large right tail of positive growth rates). We find similar results at the industry level: industries with falling growth rates see more left-skewed growth rates of firm sales, employment, and productivity. We then build a heterogeneous-agent model in which entrepreneurs face shocks with time-varying skewness that matches the firm-level distributions we document for the United States. Our quantitative results show that a negative shock to the skewness of firms' productivity growth (keeping the mean and variance constant) generates a persistent drop in output, investment, hiring, and consumption. This suggests the rising risk of large negative firm-level shocks could be an important factor driving recessions.

Economic Cycles

Economic Cycles PDF Author: Solomos Solomou
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719041518
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
The ups and downs of booms and slumps, often referred to as business cycles, are features of all modern economies. This book considers business cycles over three epochs 1870-1913, 1919-1938 and the post-World War II period. It provides an analysis of the key macroeconomic questions relating to economic fluctuations. Why are the ups and down more volatile in some epochs than others? Why are some business cycle shocks more persistent in their effects? Is there an international business cycle? Can present business cycle features predict future patterns? What impact will institutional changes, such as EMU have on future fluctuations?

Business Cycles

Business Cycles PDF Author: Victor Zarnowitz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226978923
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 613

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Book Description
This volume presents the most complete collection available of the work of Victor Zarnowitz, a leader in the study of business cycles, growth, inflation, and forecasting.. With characteristic insight, Zarnowitz examines theories of the business cycle, including Keynesian and monetary theories and more recent rational expectation and real business cycle theories. He also measures trends and cycles in economic activity; evaluates the performance of leading indicators and their composite measures; surveys forecasting tools and performance of business and academic economists; discusses historical changes in the nature and sources of business cycles; and analyzes how successfully forecasting firms and economists predict such key economic variables as interest rates and inflation.

Business Cycles and Financial Crises

Business Cycles and Financial Crises PDF Author: A. W. Mullineux
Publisher: Bookboon
ISBN: 8776818853
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description


Business Cycles

Business Cycles PDF Author: Wesley Clair Mitchell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 642

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Book Description


The American Business Cycle

The American Business Cycle PDF Author: Robert J. Gordon
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226304590
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 882

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Book Description
In recent decades the American economy has experienced the worst peace-time inflation in its history and the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. These circumstances have prompted renewed interest in the concept of business cycles, which Joseph Schumpeter suggested are "like the beat of the heart, of the essence of the organism that displays them." In The American Business Cycle, some of the most prominent macroeconomics in the United States focuses on the questions, To what extent are business cycles propelled by external shocks? How have post-1946 cycles differed from earlier cycles? And, what are the major factors that contribute to business cycles? They extend their investigation in some areas as far back as 1875 to afford a deeper understanding of both economic history and the most recent economic fluctuations. Seven papers address specific aspects of economic activity: consumption, investment, inventory change, fiscal policy, monetary behavior, open economy, and the labor market. Five papers focus on aggregate economic activity. In a number of cases, the papers present findings that challenge widely accepted models and assumptions. In addition to its substantive findings, The American Business Cycle includes an appendix containing both the first published history of the NBER business-cycle dating chronology and many previously unpublished historical data series.

Time-Varying Skewness and Real Business Cycles

Time-Varying Skewness and Real Business Cycles PDF Author: Lance Kent
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
In the context of a quantitative real business cycle (RBC) model, we document that shocks to the higher-order moments, especially the skewness, of productivity can have large first-order effects on business cycles. We augment a standard small open economy RBC model with a new feature: a discrete regime switching between higher-order moments of total factor productivity shocks between an unrest state and a quiet state. To map the theory to data, we exploit an extensive database of mass political unrest around the world. We calibrate the model to the observed increases in the volatility and skewness of the growth rates of key economic variables during episodes of unrest. The calibrated model shows that increases in negative skewness play an important role in explaining the observed first-order decline in economic activities.

Business Cycles

Business Cycles PDF Author: Wesley Clair Mitchell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
"First printing, July, 1927.""A rewriting, based on new and fuller statistical material, of his book on 'Business cycles, ' published in 1913"--Foreword.

What Happens During Business Cycles

What Happens During Business Cycles PDF Author: Wesley Clair Mitchell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description


Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness

Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness PDF Author: Henrik Jensen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
We document that the U.S. economy has been characterized by an increasingly negative business cycle asymmetry over the last three decades. This finding can be explained by the concurrent increase in the financial leverage of households and firms. To support this view, we devise and estimate a dynamic general equilibrium model with collateralized borrowing and occasionally binding credit constraints. Higher leverage increases the likelihood that constraints become slack in the face of expansionary shocks, while contractionary shocks are further amplified due to binding constraints. As a result, booms become progressively smoother and more prolonged than busts. We are therefore able to reconcile a more negatively skewed business cycle with the Great Moderation in cyclical volatility. Finally, in line with recent empirical evidence, financially-driven expansions lead to deeper contractions, as compared with equally-sized non-financial expansions.