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What inventories tell us about aggregate fluctuations—A tractable approach to (S,s) policies

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  • Wang, Pengfei
  • Wen, Yi
  • Xu, Zhiwei

Abstract

We estimate a DSGE model with (S,s) inventory policies. We find that (i) taking inventories into account can significantly improve the empirical fit of DSGE models in matching the standard business-cycle moments (in addition to explaining inventory fluctuations); (ii) (S,s) inventory policies can significantly amplify aggregate output fluctuations, in contrast to the findings of the recent general-equilibrium inventory literature; and (iii) aggregate demand shocks become more important than technology shocks in explaining the business cycle once inventories are incorporated into the model. An independent contribution of our paper is that we develop a solution method for analytically solving (S,s) inventory policies in general equilibrium models with heterogeneous firms and a large aggregate state space, and we illustrate how standard log-linearization methods can be used to solve various versions of our inventory model, generate impulse response functions, and estimate the model׳s deep structural parameters.

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  • Wang, Pengfei & Wen, Yi & Xu, Zhiwei, 2014. "What inventories tell us about aggregate fluctuations—A tractable approach to (S,s) policies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 196-217.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:44:y:2014:i:c:p:196-217
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2014.05.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Grasselli, Matheus R. & Nguyen-Huu, Adrien, 2018. "Inventory growth cycles with debt-financed investment," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-13.
    2. Dai Tiantian & Liu Xiangbo & Sun Wei, 2020. "The effects of monetary policy on input inventories," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 20(1), pages 1-34, January.
    3. Chia-Nan Wang & Thanh-Tuan Dang & Ngoc-Ai-Thy Nguyen, 2020. "A Computational Model for Determining Levels of Factors in Inventory Management Using Response Surface Methodology," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Fabio Antoniou & Raffaele Fiocco, 2019. "Strategic inventories under limited commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(3), pages 695-729, September.
    5. Shih-Hsien Tseng & Jia-Chen Yu, 2019. "Data-Driven Iron and Steel Inventory Control Policies," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-15, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    (S; s) inventories policy; State-dependent decisions; Heterogeneous-agent models; Perturbation methods;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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