世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

/pdf/the-theory-of-industrial-organization-19bejph0ej.pdf

The Theory of Industrial Organization

are price decreases. (3) The frequency of price increases covaries strongly with inflation, whereas the frequency of price decreases and the size of price increases and price decreases do not. (4) The frequency of price change is highly seasonal: it is highest in the first quarter and then declines. (5) We find no evidence of upwardsloping hazard functions of price changes for individual products. We show that the first, second, and third facts are consistent with a benchmark menu-cost model, whereas the fourth and fifth facts are not.

/pdf/five-facts-about-prices-a-reevaluation-of-menu-cost-models-35l383bzoq.pdf

Five Facts about Prices: A Reevaluation of Menu Cost Models

lapse using the highly unequal geographic distribution of wealth losses across the United States. We estimate a large elasticity of consumption with respect to housing net worth of 0.6 to 0.8, which soundly rejects the hypothesis of full consumption risk-sharing. The average marginal propensity to consume (MPC) out of housing wealth is 5–7 cents with substantial heterogeneity across ZIP codes. ZIP codes with poorer and more levered households have a significantly higher MPC out of housing wealth. In line with the MPC result, ZIP codes experiencing larger wealth losses, particularly those with poorer and more levered households, experience a larger reduction in credit limits, refinancing likelihood, and credit scores. Our findings highlight the role of debt and the geographic distribution of wealth shocks in explaining the large and unequal decline in consumption from 2006 to 2009. JEL Codes: E21, E32, E44, E60.

/pdf/household-balance-sheets-consumption-and-the-economic-slump-4xo9n6fpzz.pdf

Household Balance Sheets, Consumption, and the Economic Slump*

Enclosed is a copy of the Board of Governors’ Semiannual Agenda of Regulations for the period August 1, 1980 through February 1, 1981. The Semiannual Agenda provides you with information on those regulatory matters that the Board now has under consideration or anticipates considering over the next six months, and is divided into three parts: (1) regulatory matters that the Board had considered during the previous six months on which final action has been taken; (2) regulatory matters that have been proposed for public comment and that require further Board consideration; and (3) regulatory matters that the Board may consider over the next six months.

Federal Reserve Bank of New Yorkの制定せる財務諸表様式について

Models with multiple-worker rms and search frictions have been the focus of a lot of recent studies; Cooper, Haltiwanger, and Willis (2007), Elsby and Michaels (2007), Hobijn and Sahin (2007), Acemoglu and Hawkins (2006), and Ebell and Haefke (2004, 2006) The hiring and ring decisions of multiple-worker rms crucially depend on the way wages are determined However, there is no broad consensus on which is the empirically most relevant wage determination mechanism In this paper, we compare the empirical implications of four di¤erent wage setting mechanisms in a model of rm-size dynamics based on Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993) In particular, the four mechanisms that we consider are: (i) Take-it-or-leave-it o¤er to workers, as in Cooper, Haltiwanger, and Willis (2007) and Hobijn and Sahin (2007) (ii) intra-rm individual worker bargaining with non-binding contracts, as in Stole and Zwiebel (1996a, b), (iii) intra-rm collective bargaining with non-binding contracts, as in Ebell and Haefke (2004, 2006), and (iv) wage-posting, as in Acemoglu and Shimer (1999) We compare the results of our model with the evidence on the relationship between rm size and wages surveyed in Oi and Idson (1999)

/pdf/wage-determination-and-firm-size-dynamics-3r11pzifx7.pdf

Wage Determination and Firm Size Dynamics

We introduce a model of endogenous growth in which the returns to innovation are determined by the technology adoption decisions of the users of the new innovative technologies. The technology adoption decisions in our model consist of two dimensions. The first is when to adopt a new technology. The second is at what initial productivity level to adopt it and which part of its productivity potential to learn by doing. Our model economy is one with realistic adoption curves for each technology, the shape of which are an important determinant of the return to innovations and thus of economic growth

Adoption Lags, Implementation Gaps, and Economic Growth

We introduce a vintage capital model in which workers are matched with machines of increasing quality. Quality improvements of the machines are the sole source of technological change in this economy. However, the matching of workers with machines implies that there is no well defined capital aggregate in this economy. Hence, investment price indices are a spurious measure of price changes in capital goods. We show that the use of such spurious measures of investment price changes in conjunction with standard growth accounting methods can lead to the severe overstatement of the importance of quality improvements of capital goods in our model. That is it can lead to spurious measures of investment specific technological change. keywords: imperfect competition, price indices, vintage capital. JEL-code: O310, O470, C190. ∗Correspondence: Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Domestic Research Function. 33 Liberty Street, 3rd floor. New York, NY 10045. E-mail: bart.hobijn@ny.frb.org. The views expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, nor those of the Federal Reserve System. This paper is based on FRBNY staff report #139, entitled “Is Equipment Price Deflation a Statistical Artifact?”. Comments by Ana Aizcorbe, Boyan Jovanovic and Kevin Stiroh have been instrumental in writing this paper.

/pdf/spurious-investment-specific-technological-change-5bn8ptfjgr.pdf

Spurious Investment Specific Technological Change

We introduce a joint model of labor market search and firm size dynamics to explain the differential in labor market and productivity outcomes between the U.S. and the European Union. At the core, our model is a hybrid of the labor market search model by Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) and the model of the size distribution firms by Lucas (1978). Around this core, however, we add several layers that we use to add rigidities that affect the `flexibility' with which resources are allocated in our model economy. The first layer that we add is creative destruction. That is, we relate the need for job reallocations to the growth rate of the economy. In each period better firms enter while inferior firms exit, in the spirit of Jovanovic (1982). Hence, contrary to Mortensen and Pissarides (1994), exit of firms, and the destruction of the jobs that they offer, is thus endogenous in our model. The second layer that we add is the occupational choice of workers that are without a job. That is, in equilibrium workers endogenously decide whether to look for a job or to become an entrepreneur based on the quality of a business idea that they have. The third layer is the dynamic hiring and firing decisions of firms. Similar to Hopenhayn and Rogerson (1993), the firm dynamics in our model economy are in large part driven by the dynamic hiring and firing decisions made by the existing firms. We use this model to identify which types of rigidities have the biggest distortionary effect on the allocation of resources both in terms of labor as well as in terms of productivity

On Flexibity and Productivity

We take a quasi-experimental approach to estimate the value for the across-sector elasticity of substitution. To that end, we use the effects of changes in value added tax (VAT) rates on long-run movements in relative prices to identify the magnitude of the elasticity of substitution across expenditure categories. Using a standard model of imperfect competition with Cobb-Douglas production and Dixit-Stiglitz preferences both within and across sectors, we show that the long-run response of relative prices to changes in VAT is a simple function of the labor share and the elasticity of substitution across sectors. We construct a novel data set of VAT rate changes by expenditure categories in the European Union matched to their respective inflation rates. Estimates of the effect of VAT rate change on inflation in the long-run suggest that the magnitude of the elasticity of substitution across expenditure categories nears 3.

Bart Hobijn

Papers

Wage Determination and Firm Size Dynamics

Adoption Lags, Implementation Gaps, and Economic Growth

Spurious Investment Specific Technological Change

On Flexibity and Productivity

Sticker Shocks: VAT changes and the substitution across expenditure categories