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What Explains the Varying Monetary Response to Technology SHocks in G7-Countries

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Author Info
Athena T. Theodorou
Neville R. Francis
Michael T. Owyang

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Abstract

Structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) have become a standard tool used to determine the roles of monetary policy shocks in generating cyclical fluctuations in the United States. Using both long- and short-run identifying restrictions, various authors have explored the empirical response of the economy to exogenous monetary innovations. While the majority of the studies of monetary policy have focused on the effect of exogenous money growth or interest rate shocks, recent research has begun to investigate the effect of endogenous monetary policy -- that is, the central bank's reaction to non-monetary shocks. One exogenous shock that many economists believe contributes to the business cycle fluctuations that feed into the Taylor rule is the technology shock. In an effort to identify the empirical effects of technology shocks, Gali (1999) estimated two models: a bivariate model of productivity and hours and a five-variable model adding money, inflation, and interest rates. His identification estimates a decomposition of productivity and hours into innovations to technology and non-technology components by assuming that only the former can have long-run effects on labor productivity. Empirical identification of the technology shock was a key first step in developing a unified reduced-form framework with which to examine the role that monetary policy has played in smoothing economic fluctuations. Along these lines, Gali, Lopez-Salido, and Valles (2003 -- henceforth GLV) examined the endogenous response of monetary policy to identified technology shocks in the United States. GLV examine a four-variable structural VAR for the United States with labor productivity, labor hours, the real interest rate, and inflation. Using the Gali (1999) identification, they find that during the Volcker-Greenspan (VG) era the Fed's response to the technology shock is to raise the nominal interest rate, while during the Martin-Burns-Miller (MBM) era the Fed lowers the nominal rate. Moreover, they find that the inflation and hours responses in the two periods differ in sign. Our goal is to expand the scope of GLV to an international context to determine whether the effect of technology shocks is consistent across the major industrialized countries. In particular, we are interested in how the different central banks respond to technology shocks. We investigate the possibility that technology shocks in different countries produce fundamentally different inflation and employment responses and to what extent those effects alter the monetary response. Using a theoretical model adapted from King and Wolman (1996), we find that the empirical responses can be matched with theoretical responses. Differences in these theoretical responses can be attributed to alternative policy rules and changes in the cost of capital adjustment. Further tests verify that these country characteristics could, indeed, have some explanatory power. Our results are by no means conclusive; however, they do suggest a number of theoretically consistent similarities across countries in each subgroup. While we believe more investigation into these cross-country comparisons is warranted, the initial indication is that the manner in which monetary policy is conducted and the degree of rigidity in capital markets may be determining factors in a country's response to technology shocks. Gali, Jordi (1999). "Technology, Employment, and the Business Cycle: Do Technology Shocks Explain Aggregate Fluctuations?" American Economic Review, March 1999, 89(1), pp. 249-271. Gali, Jordi; Lopez-Salido, J. David; and Valles, Javier (2003). "Technology Shocks and Monetary Policy: Assessing the Fed's Performance." Journal of Monetary Economics, May 2003, 50(4), pp. 723-743. King, Robert G., and Wolman, Alexander L. (1996). "Inflation Targetting in a St. Louis Model of the 21st Century." Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, May/June 1996, 78(3), pp. 83-107.

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Paper provided by Econometric Society in its series Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings with number 444.

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Date of creation: 11 Aug 2004
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Handle: RePEc:ecm:nasm04:444

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Related research
Keywords: Technology; Productivity; Monetary Policy; Taylor Rule; Capital Adjustment Costs;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions
E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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  1. Harald Uhlig, 2004. "Do Technology Shocks Lead to a Fall in Total Hours Worked?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 361-371, 04/05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Richard Clarida & Jordi Gali & Mark Gertler, 1997. "Monetary Policy Rules in Practice: Some International Evidence," NBER Working Papers 6254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Gali, Jordi & Lopez-Salido, J. David & Valles, Javier, 2003. "Technology shocks and monetary policy: assessing the Fed's performance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 723-743, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Ben S. Bernanke & Ilian Mihov, 1998. "Measuring Monetary Policy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(3), pages 869-902, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Uhlig, Harald, 1999. "What are the Effects of Monetary Policy on Output? Results from an Agnostic Identification Procedure," CEPR Discussion Papers 2137, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. King, Robert G & Watson, Mark W, 1998. "The Solution of Singular Linear Difference Systems under Rational Expectations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1015-26, November.
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    Other versions:
  9. Julio J. Rotemberg & Michael Woodford, 1998. "Interest-Rate Rules in an Estimated Sticky Price Model," NBER Working Papers 6618, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Charles L. Evans, 1998. "Monetary Policy Shocks: What Have We Learned and to What End?," NBER Working Papers 6400, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Raf Wouters & Frank Smets, 2005. "Comparing shocks and frictions in US and euro area business cycles: a Bayesian DSGE Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 161-183. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Jordi Gali, 1999. "Technology, Employment, and the Business Cycle: Do Technology Shocks Explain Aggregate Fluctuations?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 249-271, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Hamilton, James D, 1983. "Oil and the Macroeconomy since World War II," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(2), pages 228-48, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Robert Vigfusson, 2003. "What Happens After a Technology Shock?," NBER Working Papers 9819, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Neville Francis & Michael T. Owyang & Athena T. Theodorou, 2003. "The use of long-run restrictions for the identification of technology shocks," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Nov, pages 53-66. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Neville Francis & Valerie A. Ramey, 2004. "The Source of Historical Economic Fluctuations: An Analysis using Long-Run Restrictions," NBER Working Papers 10631, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Richard Clarida & Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler, 2000. "Monetary Policy Rules And Macroeconomic Stability: Evidence And Some Theory," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(1), pages 147-180, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  19. John B. Taylor, 1999. "Monetary Policy Rules," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number tayl99-1, September.
  20. Jean Boivin & Marc Giannoni, 2002. "Has monetary policy become less powerful?," Staff Reports 144, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
  21. Susanto Basu & John Fernald & Miles Kimball, 1998. "Are technology improvements contractionary?," International Finance Discussion Papers 625, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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  22. Calvo, Guillermo A., 1983. "Staggered prices in a utility-maximizing framework," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 383-398, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  23. Caballero, Ricardo J & Hammour, Mohamad L, 1994. "The Cleansing Effect of Recessions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1350-68, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Michele Boldrin & Lawrence J. Christiano & Jonas D. M. Fisher, 2001. "Habit Persistence, Asset Returns, and the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(1), pages 149-166, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  25. Eric M. Leeper & Christopher A. Sims & Tao Zha, 1996. "What Does Monetary Policy Do?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1996-2), pages 1-78. [Downloadable!]
  26. Valerie Ramey & Neville Francis, 2002. "Is The Technology-Driven Real Business Cycle Hypothesis Dead? Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations Revisted," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series 2002-03, Department of Economics, UC San Diego. [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. Fabrizio Mattesini & Lorenza Rossi, 2007. "Productivity shocks and Optimal Monetary Policy in a Unionized Labor Market Economy," DISCE - Quaderni dell'Istituto di Economia e Finanza ief0072, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Neville Francis & Michael T. Owyang & Jennifer E. Roush, 2007. "A flexible finite-horizon identification of technology shocks," Working Papers 2005-024, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Rossi, Lorenza & Mattesini, Fabrizio, 2007. "Optimal Monetary Policy in a Dual Labor Market Economy," MPRA Paper 2468, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Mar 2007. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rossi, Lorenza & Mattesini, Fabrizio, 2007. "Productivity Shock and Optimal Monetary Policy in a Unionized Labor Market. Forthcoming: The Manchester School," MPRA Paper 8414, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mattesini Fabrizio & Rossi Lorenza, 2007. "Optimal monetary policy in economies with dual labor markets," wp.comunite 0009, Department of Communication, University of Teramo. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Jordi Gali, 2005. "Trends in Hours, Balanced Growth, and the Role of Technology in the Business Cycle," NBER Working Papers 11130, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Jordi Gali & Pau Rabanal, 2004. "Technology Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations: How Well Does the RBS Model Fit Postwar U.S. Data?," NBER Working Papers 10636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  8. Hashmat Khan & John Tsoukalas, 2005. "Technology Shocks and UK Business Cycles," Macroeconomics 0512006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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