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Investment shocks and business cycles

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Author Info
Alejandro Justiniano
Giorgio E. Primiceri
Andrea Tambalotti

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Abstract

Shocks to the marginal efficiency of investment are the most important drivers of business cycle fluctuations in US output and hours. Moreover, these disturbances drive prices higher in expansions, like a textbook demand shock. We reach these conclusions by estimating a DSGE model with several shocks and frictions. We also find that neutral technology shocks are not negligible, but their share in the variance of output is only around 25 percent, and even lower for hours. Labor supply shocks explain a large fraction of the variation of hours at very low frequencies, but not over the business cycle. Finally, we show that imperfect competition and, to a lesser extent, technological frictions are the key to the transmission of investment shocks in the model.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in its series Working Paper Series with number WP-08-12.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhwp:wp-08-12

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Keywords: Investments ; Business cycles;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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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. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe & Martin Uribe, 2008. "What's News in Business Cycles," NBER Working Papers 14215, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Martins, Guilherme & Sinigaglia, Daniel, 2009. "Real Business Cycle Dynamics under Rational Inattention," MPRA Paper 14089, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. Berriel, Tiago & Sinigaglia, Daniel, 2008. "Optimal Fiscal and Monetary Policy under Sectorial Heterogeneity," MPRA Paper 10233, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 25 Jun 2008. [Downloadable!]
  4. Zheng Liu & Daniel F. Waggoner & Tao Zha, 2008. "Sources of the Great Moderation: Shocks, Frictions, or Monetary Policy?," Emory Economics 0811, Department of Economics, Emory University (Atlanta). [Downloadable!]
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  5. P. Jacob & G. Peersman, 2008. "Dissecting the Dynamics of the US Trade Balance in an Estimated Equilibrium Model," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 08/544, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. [Downloadable!]
  6. Carlos Carvalho & Fernanda Nechio, 2008. "Aggregation and the PPP puzzle in a sticky-price model," Staff Reports 351, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. [Downloadable!]
  7. Enrique Martinez-Garcia & Jens Søndergaard, 2008. "The real exchange rate in sticky price models: does investment matter?," Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Working Paper 17, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie & Uribe, Martín, 2009. "What’s News in Business Cycles," CEPR Discussion Papers 7201, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Gregory Erin Givens, 2008. "Unemployment Insurance in a Sticky-Price Model with Worker Moral Hazard," Working Papers 200807, Middle Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance. [Downloadable!]
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