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.

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.

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.

Skewness and Time-Varying Second Moments in a Nonlinear Production Network

Skewness and Time-Varying Second Moments in a Nonlinear Production Network PDF Author: Ian Dew-Becker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business cycles
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
This paper studies asymmetry in economic activity over the business cycle. It develops a tractable multisector model of the economy in which complementarity across inputs causes aggregate activity to be left skewed with countercyclical volatility. We then examine implications of the model regarding the time-series skewness of activity at the sector level, cyclicality of dispersion and skewness across sectors, and the conditional covariances of sector growth rates, finding support for each in the data. The empirical skewness of employment growth, industrial production growth, and stock returns increases with the level of aggregation, which is consistent with the model's implication that it is the nonlinearity in the production structure of the economy that generates the skewness. Other prominent models of asymmetry are not able to simultaneously match the range of empirical facts that the production network model can.

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.

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.

Uncertainty, Skewness, and the Business Cycle Through the Midas Lens

Uncertainty, Skewness, and the Business Cycle Through the Midas Lens PDF Author: Efrem Castelnuovo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
We employ a mixed-frequency quantile regression approach to model the time-varying conditional distribution of the US real GDP growth rate. We show that monthly information on the US financial cycle improves the predictive power of an otherwise quarterly-only model. We combine selected quantiles of the estimated conditional distribution to produce measures of uncertainty and skewness. Embedding these measures in a VAR framework, we show that unexpected changes in uncertainty are associated with an increase in (left) skewness and a downturn in real activity. Empirical findings related to VAR impulse responses and forecast error variance decomposition are shown to depend on the inclusion/omission of monthly-level information on financial conditions when estimating real GDP growth's conditional density. Effects are significantly downplayed if we consider a quarterly-only quantile regression model. A counterfactual simulation conducted by shutting down the endogenous response of skewness to uncertainty shocks shows that skewness substantially amplifies the recessionary effects of uncertainty.

Business Cycles

Business Cycles PDF Author: Sumru G. Altug
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812832785
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
This title provides an overview of the modern theory and empirics of business cycles. The book examines the notion of a business cycle and discusses alternative approaches to modelling. It also discusses what lies ahead for modern business cycle theory.

The Leading Economic Indicators and Business Cycles in the United States

The Leading Economic Indicators and Business Cycles in the United States PDF Author: John B. Guerard
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 303099418X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
In a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, this book provides empirical guidance to the economy and what to expect in the near and distant future. Beginning with a historic look at major contributions to economic indicators and business cycles starting with Wesley Clair Mitchell (1913) to Burns and Mitchell (1946), to Moore (1961) and Zarnowitz (1992), this book explores time series forecasting and economic cycles, which are currently maintained and enhanced by The Conference Board. Given their highly statistically significant relationship with GDP and the unemployment rate, these relationships are particularly useful for practitioners to help predict business cycles.

Business Cycles and Equilibrium

Business Cycles and Equilibrium PDF Author: Fischer Black
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470499176
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
An updated look at what Fischer Black's ideas on business cycles and equilibrium mean today Throughout his career, Fischer Black described a view of business fluctuations based on the idea that a well-developed economy will be continually in equilibrium. In the essays that constitute this book, which is one of only two books Black ever wrote, he explores this idea thoroughly and reaches some surprising conclusions. With the newfound popularity of quantitative finance and risk management, the work of Fischer Black has garnered much attention. Business Cycles and Equilibrium-with its theory that economic and financial markets are in a continual equilibrium-is one of his books that still rings true today, given the current economic crisis. This Updated Edition clearly presents Black's classic theory on business cycles and the concept of equilibrium, and contains a new introduction by the person who knows Black best: Perry Mehrling, author of Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance (Wiley). Mehrling goes inside Black's life to uncover what was occurring during the time Black wrote Business Cycles and Equilibrium, while also shedding light on what Black would make of today's financial and economic meltdown and how he would best advise to move forward. The essays within this book reach some interesting conclusions concerning the role of equilibrium in a developed economy Warns about the use and abuse of modeling Explains the risky business of risk in a straightforward and accessible style Contains chapters dedicated to "the effects of uncontrolled banking," "the trouble with econometric models," and "the effects of noise on investing" Includes commentary on Black's life and work at the time Business Cycles and Equilibrium was written as well as insight as to what Black would make of the current financial meltdown Engaging and informative, the Updated Edition of Business Cycles and Equilibrium will give you a better understanding of what is really going on during these uncertain and volatile financial times.

Studies in Theoretical and Applied Statistics

Studies in Theoretical and Applied Statistics PDF Author: Nicola Salvati
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031166094
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 548

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Book Description
This book includes a wide selection of papers presented at the 50th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS2021), held virtually on 21-25 June 2021. It covers a wide variety of subjects ranging from methodological and theoretical contributions to applied works and case studies, giving an excellent overview of the interests of the Italian statisticians and their international collaborations. Intended for researchers interested in theoretical and empirical issues, this volume provides interesting starting points for further research.