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Journal Article
Growth accounting with technological revolutions
Working Paper
Aggregate Labor Force Participation and Unemployment and Demographic Trends
We estimate trends in the labor force participation (LFP) and unemployment rates for demographic groups differentiated by age, gender, and education, using a parsimonious statistical model of age, cohort, and cycle effects. Based on the group trends, we construct trends for the aggregate LFP and unemployment rate. Important drivers of the aggregate LFP rate trend are demographic factors, with increasing educational attainment being important throughout the sample, ageing of the population becoming more important since 2000, and changes of groups' trend LFP rates, e.g., for women prior to ...
Journal Article
How Much Has Job Matching Efficiency Declined?
During the recession and recovery, hiring has been slower than might be expected considering the large numbers of vacant jobs and unemployed individuals. This raises some concern about structural changes in the process of matching job seekers with employers. However, the standard measures account for only the unemployed and not those who are out of the labor force. Including other non-employed groups in the measured pool of job seekers while adjusting for different job finding rates among these groups shows that the decline in matching efficiency is similar to earlier declines.
Working Paper
(S, s) inventory policies in general equilibrium
We study the aggregate implications of (S,s) inventory policies in a dynamic general equilibrium model with aggregate uncertainty. Firms in the model's retail sector face idiosyncratic demand risk, and (S,s) inventory policies are optimal because of fixed order costs. The distribution of inventory holdings affects the aggregate outcome in two ways: variation in the decision to order and variation in the rate of sale through the pricing decisions of retailers. We find that both mechanisms must operate to reconcile observations that orders are more volatile than, and inventory investment is ...
Working Paper
What is the real story for interest rate volatility?
What is the source of interest rate volatility? Why do low interest rates precede business cycle booms? Most observers tend to assume that monetary policy is largely responsible for it. Indeed, a standard real business cycle model delivers rather small fluctuations in real interest rates. Here, however, we present two models of the real business cycle variety in which real rate fluctuations are of similar magnitude as in the data, while simultaneously matching salient business cycle facts. The second model also replicates the cyclical behavior of real interest rates. The models build on ...
Working Paper
The Relationship Between Inflation and the Distribution of Relative Price Changes
Monthly U.S. inflation from 1995 through 2019 is well explained by statistics summarizing the monthly distribution of relative price changes. We document this relationship and use it to evaluate the behavior of inflation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In earlier periods when inflation was not stable, the relationship between inflation and the distribution of relative price changes shifts, much like the Phillips curve. We use that shifting relationship to derive a measure of underlying inflation that complements existing measures used by central banks.
Briefing
The Pandemic's Impact on Unemployment and Labor Force Participation Trends
Following early 2020 responses to the pandemic, labor force participation declined dramatically and has remained below its 2019 level, whereas the unemployment rate recovered briskly. We estimate the trend of labor force participation and unemployment and find a substantial impact of the pandemic on estimates of trend. It turns out that levels of labor force participation and unemployment in 2021 were approaching their estimated trends. A return to 2019 levels would then represent a tight labor market, especially relative to long-run demographic trends that suggest further declines in the ...
Briefing
Unemployment Changes as Recession Indicators
After the rapid recovery from the COVID-induced 2020 recession, U.S. economic activity has slowed in 2022, but labor markets have remained strong, and the unemployment rate is at historically low levels. This Economic Brief reviews the evidence on changes in unemployment as a coincident indicator for the start of recessions. I find that changes in unemployment are good indicators of recessions, in particular when combined with lagged term spreads, which are good recession predictors at the one-year horizon but not reliable at short horizons.
Working Paper
On the implementation of Markov-perfect interest rate and money supply rules: global and local uniqueness
Currently there is a growing literature exploring the features of optimal monetary policy in New Keynesian models under both commitment and discretion. This literature usually solves for the optimal allocations that are consistent with a rational expectations market equilibrium, but it does not study how the policy can be implemented given the available policy instruments. Recently, however, King and Wolman (2004) have shown that a time-consistent policy cannot be implemented through the control of nominal money balances. In particular, they find that equilibria are not unique under a money ...
Journal Article
Introduction to the special issue on modern macroeconomic theory
An introduction to the special issue on modern macroeconomic theory.