This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

The determinants of UK business cycles

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
Allison Holland
Andrew Scott

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

This paper considers the ultimate causes of post-war UK business cycles. Using an extended stochastic growth model the authors construct estimates of productivity and preference shocks both of which are highly persistent, volatile and potentially capable of explaining UK business cycles. They find the productivity term is the dominant explanation of UK output fluctuations but that changes in underlying preferences are crucial in understanding employment movements. Holland and Scott use a variety of Granger causality tests to establish whether these productivity and preference terms are predictable and so can be potentially considered as the cause of UK business cycles or whether they are themselves Granger caused by other variables. They find that their estimated productivity term is not predicted by any demand-side variable including various fiscal and monetary policy instruments, but is to a limited extent by oil prices and the share of taxes in GDP. This suggests that their "productivity" shock may also reflect other supply- side influences. In contrast they find their "preference" shift is predicted to a substantial extent by real variables, such as the terms of trade and oil prices, and nominal variables, such as the money supply and the price level. The implications of these findings for competing theories of the business cycles and for the monetary transmission mechanism are discussed.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/workingpapers/wp58.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by Bank of England in its series Bank of England working papers with number 58.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation:
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:58

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Publications Group Bank of England Threadneedle Street London EC2R 8AH
Phone: +44 (0)171 601 4030
Fax: +44 (0)171 601 5196
Email:
Web page: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Publications Group).

Related research
Keywords:

Other versions of this item:

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. Edward C. Prescott, 1986. "Theory ahead of business cycle measurement," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Fall, pages 9-22. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Phillips, P.C.B., 1986. "Testing for a Unit Root in Time Series Regression," Cahiers de recherche 8633, Universite de Montreal, Departement de sciences economiques.
    Other versions:
  3. Alogoskoufis, George S, 1987. "Aggregate Employment and Intertemporal Substitution in the UK," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(386), pages 403-15, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Rotemberg, Julio J & Woodford, Michael, 1996. "Real-Business-Cycle Models and the Forecastable Movements in Output, Hours, and Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 71-89, March.
  5. Benhabib, Jess & Rogerson, Richard & Wright, Randall, 1991. "Homework in Macroeconomics: Household Production and Aggregate Fluctuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(6), pages 1166-87, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Kim, In-Moo & Loungani, Prakash, 1992. "The role of energy in real business cycle models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 173-189, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Stock, James H., 1991. "Confidence intervals for the largest autoregressive root in U.S. macroeconomic time series," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 435-459, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Evans, Charles L., 1992. "Productivity shocks and real business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 191-208, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Andrews, Donald W K, 1991. "Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 817-58, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  10. Taylor, John B, 1979. "Staggered Wage Setting in a Macro Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 108-13, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Hansen, Gary D., 1985. "Indivisible labor and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 309-327, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. McGrattan, Ellen R., 1994. "The macroeconomic effects of distortionary taxation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 573-601, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Barro, Robert J & King, Robert G, 1984. "Time-separable Preferences and Intertemporal-Substitution Models of Business Cycles," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 99(4), pages 817-39, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. Hansen, G D, 1993. "The Cyclical and Secular Behaviour of the Labour Input: Comparing Efficiency Units and Hours Worked," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 71-80, Jan.-Marc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  15. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-38, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Bencivenga, Valerie R, 1992. "An Econometric Study of Hours and Output Variation with Preference Shocks," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 33(2), pages 449-71, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Robert E. Hall, 1988. "The Relation Between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry," NBER Working Papers 1785, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Burnside, C & Eichenbaum, M & Rebelo, S, 1995. "Capital Utilization and Returns to Scale," RCER Working Papers 402, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    Other versions:
  19. Hall, Robert E, 1997. "Macroeconomic Fluctuations and the Allocation of Time," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages S223-50, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. King, Robert G & Plosser, Charles I, 1984. "Money, Credit, and Prices in a Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 363-80, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Acemoglu, Daron & Scott, Andrew, 1994. "Consumer Confidence and Rational Expectations: Are Agents' Beliefs Consistent with the Theory?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(422), pages 1-19, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  22. Timothy Cogley & James M. Nason, 1993. "Output dynamics in real business cycle models," Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory 93-10, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    Other versions:
  23. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum, 1994. "Factor Hoarding and the Propagation of Business Cycles Shocks," NBER Working Papers 4675, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  24. Hall, Robert E, 1988. "The Relation between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 921-47, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  25. Layard, R. & Nickell, S., . "Layard-Nickell," Instructional Stata datasets for econometrics layardnickell, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  26. Brock, William A. & Mirman, Leonard J., 1972. "Optimal economic growth and uncertainty: The discounted case," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 479-513, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  27. Den Haan, Wouter J & Marcet, Albert, 1994. "Accuracy in Simulations," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 61(1), pages 3-17, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  28. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  29. Farmer, Roger E. A. & Jang-Ting, Guo, 1995. "The econometrics of indeterminacy: an applied study," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 225-271, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  30. Fischer, Stanley, 1977. "Long-Term Contracts, Rational Expectations, and the Optimal Money Supply Rule," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(1), pages 191-205, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  31. Sims, Christopher A & Stock, James H & Watson, Mark W, 1990. "Inference in Linear Time Series Models with Some Unit Roots," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 113-44, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  32. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

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. Peter N. Ireland & Scott Schuh, 2006. "Productivity and U.S. Macroeconomic Performance: Interpreting the Past and Predicting the Future with a Two-Sector Real Business Cycle Model," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 642, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Erik Britton & Jens D J Larsen & Ian Small, . "Imperfect competition and the dynamics of mark-ups," Bank of England working papers 110, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  3. Jens D J Larsen & Jack McKeown, 2003. "The informational content of empirical measures of real interst rate and output gaps for the United Kingdom," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Monetary policy in a changing environment, volume 19, pages 414-442 Bank for International Settlements. [Downloadable!]
  4. Arnab Bhattacharjee & Jagjit S. Chadha & Qi Sun, 2008. " Productivity, Preferences and UIP deviations in an Open Economy Business Cycle Model," CDMA Working Paper Series 0808, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Ravi Balakrishnan & J David L½pez-Salido, . "Understanding UK inflation: the role of openness," Bank of England working papers 164, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  6. Mark S Astley & Tony Yates, . "Inflation and real disequilibria," Bank of England working papers 103, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  7. Mark S Astley & Anthony Garratt, . "Exchange rates and prices: sources of sterling real exchange rate fluctuations 1973-94," Bank of England working papers 85, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  8. Galí, Jordi & Gertler, Mark & Lopez-Salido, Jose David, 2003. "Mark-ups, Gaps and the Welfare Costs of Business Fluctuations," CEPR Discussion Papers 4134, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Martin Ellison & Andrew Scott, . "Sticky prices and volatile output," Bank of England working papers 127, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  10. Jack McKeown & Jens McKeown, 2004. "The informational content of empirical measures of real interest rate and output gaps for the United Kingdom," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2003 62, Money Macro and Finance Research Group. [Downloadable!]
  11. Juan Paez-Farrell, 2003. "Monetary Policy and Business Cycle Analysis in an Optimising Model with Expectations Lags," Macroeconomics 0312002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  12. Hasan Bakhshi & Ben Martin & Tony Yates, . "How uncertain are the welfare costs of inflation?," Bank of England working papers 152, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  13. Peter N. Ireland, 2007. "On the Welfare Cost of Inflation and the Recent Behavior of Money Demand," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 662, Boston College Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  14. Jens D J Larsen & Jack McKeown, . "The informational content of empirical measures of real interest rate and output gaps for the United Kingdom," Bank of England working papers 224, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  15. Stephen P Millard, . "The effects of increased labour market flexibility in the United Kingdom: theory and practice," Bank of England working papers 109, Bank of England. [Downloadable!]
  16. Bank for International Settlements, 2003. "Monetary policy in a changing environment," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 19, 11. [Downloadable!]
  17. Alfred Maussner & Julius Spatz, 2006. "Determinants of business cycles in small scale macroeconomic models: the German case," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 921-950, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? IDEAS also covers the most complete directory of Economics departments and institutes, EDIRC.

This page was last updated on 2009-11-27.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.