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Revisiting the Great Moderation: policy or luck?

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We investigate the relative roles of monetary policy and shocks in causing the Great Moderation, using indirect inference where a DSGE model is tested for its ability to mimic a VAR describing the data. A New Keynesian model with a Taylor Rule and one with the Optimal Timeless Rule are both tested. The latter easily dominates, whether calibrated or estimated, implying that the Fed s policy in the 1970s was neither inadequate nor a cause of indeterminacy,it was both optimal and essentially unchanged during the 1980s. By implication it was largely the reduced shocks that caused the Great Moderation among them monetary policy shocks the Fed injected into inflation.

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  • Minford, Patrick & Ou, Zhirong & Wickens, Michael, 2012. "Revisiting the Great Moderation: policy or luck?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2012/9, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section, revised Apr 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2012/9
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    Cited by:

    1. Le, Vo Phuong Mai & Meenagh, David & Minford, Patrick & Wickens, Michael, 2015. "Small sample performance of indirect inference on DSGE models," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2015/2, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    2. Aleš Bulíř & Jaromír Hurník & Kateřina Šmídková, 2016. "What Do Central Banks Know about Inflation Factors?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 795-810, September.
    3. Vo Le & David Meenagh & Patrick Minford & Michael Wickens & Yongdeng Xu, 2016. "Testing Macro Models by Indirect Inference: A Survey for Users," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1-38, February.
    4. Jenyu Chou & Yifei Cao & Patrick Minford, 2023. "Evaluation and indirect inference estimation of inattentive features in a New Keynesian framework," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(3), pages 530-542, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great Moderation; Causes; Indirect inference; Test; Wald statistics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies

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