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Assessing Sign Restrictions

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Author Info
Matthias Paustian (Bowling Green State University)
Abstract

This paper assesses sign restrictions via a controlled experiment. A researcher estimates a VAR on an infinite amount of data generated by a DSGE model. He or she then imposes sign restrictions on impulse responses to identify a structural shock while being agnostic about the response of a key variable of interest to this shock. Can such an agnostic identification procedure pin down the correct sign of this unconstrained response?The DSGE models of Erceg, Henderson, and Levin (2000), as well as of Smets and Wouters (2003), are used as data generating processes. Two conditions must be met for the method to unambiguously deliver the correct sign of the unconstrained impulse response. First, a sufficiently large number of restrictions must be imposed -- more than what is typically imposed in applied work. Second, the variance of the shock under study must be sufficiently large -- larger than the values provided by Bayesian estimations of the DSGE models. Hence, sign restrictions can be a useful tool to recover structural shocks from VAR residuals.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Berkeley Electronic Press in its journal Topics in Macroeconomics.

Volume (Year): 7 (2007)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 1543-1543
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Handle: RePEc:bep:mactop:v:7:y:2007:i:1:p:1543-1543

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Related research
Keywords: sign restrictions structural VAR monetary shocks technology shocks

Find related papers by JEL classification:
E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

  1. Erceg, Christopher J. & Henderson, Dale W. & Levin, Andrew T., 2000. "Optimal monetary policy with staggered wage and price contracts," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 281-313, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Lutz Kilian, 1998. "Small-Sample Confidence Intervals For Impulse Response Functions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(2), pages 218-230, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde & Juan Rubio-Ramirez & Thomas J. Sargent, 2005. "A, B, C's (and D)'s for Understanding VARs," NBER Technical Working Papers 0308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Farrant, Katie & Peersman, Gert, 2006. "Is the Exchange Rate a Shock Absorber or a Source of Shocks? New Empirical Evidence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(4), pages 939-961, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Renee Fry & Adrian Pagan, 2005. "Some Issues In Using Vars For Macroeconometric Research," CAMA Working Papers 2005-19, Australian National University, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  6. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Robert Vigfusson, 2006. "Assessing Structural VARs," NBER Working Papers 12353, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Luca Dedola & Stefano Neri, 2006. "What does a technology shock do? A VAR analysis with model-based sign restrictions," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 607, Bank of Italy, Economic Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Faust, Jon, 1998. "The robustness of identified VAR conclusions about money," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 207-244, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Pappa, Evi, 2005. "New-Keynesian or RBC Transmission? The Effects of Fiscal Shocks in Labour Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 5313, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Rabanal, Pau & Rubio-Ramirez, Juan F., 2005. "Comparing New Keynesian models of the business cycle: A Bayesian approach," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 1151-1166, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Jon Faust, 1998. "The robustness of identified VAR conclusions about money," International Finance Discussion Papers 610, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  12. Ravenna, Federico, 2007. "Vector autoregressions and reduced form representations of DSGE models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 2048-2064, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Lawrence J. Christiano, Martin Eichenbaum, and Charles L. Evans, 2005. "Nominal Rigidities and the Dynamic Effects of a Shock to Monetary Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(1), pages 1-45, February.
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  14. Federico Ravenna & University of California & Juha Seppala & University of Illinois, 2006. "Monetary Policy and the Term Structure of Interest Rates," Computing in Economics and Finance 2006 197, Society for Computational Economics. [Downloadable!]
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Kristie M. Engemann & Michael T. Owyang & Sarah Zubairy, 2008. "A primer on the empirical identification of government spending shocks," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Mar, pages 117-132. [Downloadable!]
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