Search Results
Working Paper
Signal extraction and the propagation of business cycles
This paper studies a class of models developed by Townsend (1993) and Sargent (1991). These models feature dynamic signal extraction problems in which firms with heterogeneous information draw inferences from endogenously generated time series about the value of common persistent shock. Because the information firms receive is partially determined by the expectations of other firms, each firm must 'forecast the forecasts of others'. Moreover, since it is common knowledge that everyone is in the same situation, there occurs an infinite regress in expectations, in which each firm attempts to ...
Journal Article
Comovements among national stock markets
This paper uses the methodology of Hansen and Jaganathan (1991) to derive a lower bound on the correlation between any pair of asset returns under the hypothesis of complete markets. The bound is a simple function of the two assets' Sharpe ratios and the coefficient of variation of a unique stochastic discount factor. The paper uses this bound to conduct robust, nonparametric tests of the hypothesis that international equity markets are integrated. ; Using monthly stock return data from the U.S., Japan, and Great Britain for the period 1980 through 1993, I find that conclusions about market ...
Journal Article
Model Averaging and Persistent Disagreement
The authors consider the following scenario: Two agents construct models of an endogenous price process. One agent thinks the data are stationary, the other thinks the data are nonstationary. A policymaker combines forecasts from the two models using a recursive Bayesian model averaging procedure. The actual (but unknown) price process depends on the policymaker?s forecasts. The authors find that if the policymaker has complete faith in the stationary model, then beliefs and outcomes converge to the stationary rational expectations equilibrium. However, even a grain of doubt about ...
Working Paper
Optimal policy with limited commitment
This paper uses Whiteman's(1986) frequency-domain optimization methodology to parameterize the precommitment period in a standard rational expectations policy design model. This allows researchers to adopt an empirical approach to the time consistency issue. That is, the operative commitment horizon in a given policy setting can be estimated along with the other parameters characterizing the preferences and constraints of the agents in the model. It is shown that the commitment horizon can be estimated by running (restricted) regressions of the policymaker's instrument variable on past values ...
Working Paper
Monetary policy in Japan: a structural VAR analysis
This paper studies the objectives and operating procedures of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) during the period 1975-94. To do this we adapt Bernanke and Mihov's (1995) structural VAR model, which nests several alternative hypotheses concerning central bank behavior. In particular, the model separately identifies the anticipated and unanticipated components of monetary policy, and is capable of distinguishing between interest rate targeting and various types of reserve targeting. ; Three main results emerge from the analysis. First, no single target can explain the BOJ's behavior. Instead, the ...
Journal Article
Contractionary effects of devaluation
Working Paper
A dynamic model of export competition, policy coordination and simultaneous currency collapse
This paper offers a game-theoretic interpretation of the recent currency crisis in Asia. Specifically, we argue that the 'price wars during booms' logic of Rotemberg and Saloner (1986) can be used to explain the nearly simultaneous devaluation of several Asian currencies during the summer of 1997. The idea is as follows. Since each of these countries relies heavily on exports to the U.S. pressures for competitive devaluations naturally arise. ; We view the historical tendency of these countries to peg to the dollar as a way to avoid these pressures. However, it must be in the ...
Journal Article
Generational accounting in open economies
Using data on U.S. and Japanese government debt, we calibrate a version of Weil's (1989) model and study the international and intergenerational consequences of recent fiscal policy. Assuming debt/GDP ratios stabilize at current levels, the model implies: (1) the world real interest rate rises by fewer than two basis points; (2) the United States runs small but persistent external deficits; and (3) current generations in the United States experience a slight increase in wealth, while future generations both at home and abroad suffer analogous decreases. Most of the wealth effects are ...
Journal Article
Will inflation targeting work in developing countries?