The research led by Gali (AER 1999) and Basu et al. (AER 2006) raises two important questions regarding the validity of the RBC theory: (i) How important are technology shocks in explaining the business cycle? (ii) Do impulse responses to technology shocks found in the data reject the assumption of ‡exible prices? This paper argues that the conditional impulse responses of the U.S. economy to t...

Investment-specific technology (IST) shocks are often interpreted as multi-factor productivity (MFP) shocks in a separate investment-producing sector. However, this interpretation is strictly valid only when some stringent conditions are satisfied. Some of these conditions are at odds with the data. Using a two-sector model whose calibration is based on the U.S. Input-Output Tables, we consider...

Stochastic, processes can be stationary or nonstationary. They depend on the magnitude of shocks. In other words, in an auto regressive model of order one, the estimated coefficient is not constant. Another finding of this paper is the relation between estimated coefficients and residuals. We also develop a catastrophe and chaos theory for change of roots from stationary to a nonstationary one ...

Adding variable capital utilisation to a dynamic new Keynesian framework gives a model which can produce realistic responses to both technology and monetary shocks. This requires the assumption of a much lower level of nominal rigidity than is usual.

The market value of a firm can be decomposed into two fundamental parts: the value of assets in place and the value of future growth opportunities. We propose a theoreticallymotivated procedure for measuring heterogeneity in growth opportunities across firms. We identify firms with high growth opportunities based on the covariance of their stock returns with the investment-specific productivity...

This paper aims at explaining, both qualitatively and quantitatively, why consumption growth is substantially more volatile in developing countries than in developed countries. I propose an infinite-horizon stochastic growth model with endogenous financial development, à la Acemoglu and Zilibotti (1997). In this model, micro level indivisibility and aggregate savings determine the degree of div...

The recent financial crisis and subsequent recession have spurred great interest in the sources of unemployment fluctuations. Previous studies predominantly assume a single economy-wide labour market, and therefore abstract from differences across sector-specific labour markets in the economy. In Canada, such differences are substantial. From 1991 to 2010, employment in the tradable sector is a...

This paper analyses a RBC model in continuous time featuring deterministic incremental development of technology and stochastic fundamental inventions arriving according to a Poisson process. Other than in standard RBC models, shocks are uncorrelated, irregular and rather seldom. In two special cases analytical solutions are presented. In the general case a delay differential equation (DDE) has...

The purpose of this study is to analyse the dynamic response of a set of euro area macroeconomic variables to monetary policy and technology shocks. We do so by conducting simulations on three different models of the euro area. The first modelling approach corresponds to structural VAR models (SVAR), the second approach uses the NiGEM multi-country model developed by the National Institute of E...