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The Lucas critique and the stability of empirical models

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Thomas A. Lubik
Paolo Surico

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Abstract

This paper re-considers the empirical relevance of the Lucas critique using a DSGE sticky price model in which a weak central bank response to inflation generates equilibrium indeterminacy. The model is calibrated on the magnitude of the historical shift in the Federal Reserve’s policy rule and is capable of generating the decline in the volatility of inflation and real activity observed in U.S. data. Using Monte Carlo simulations and a backward-looking model of aggregate supply and demand, we show that shifts in the policy rule induce breaks in both the reduced-form coefficients and the reduced-form error variances. The statistics of popular parameter stability tests are shown to have low power if such heteroskedasticity is neglected. In contrast, when the instability of the reduced-form error variances is accounted for, the Lucas critique is found to be empirically relevant for both artificial and actual data.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in its series Working Paper with number 06-05.

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Date of creation: 2006
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedrwp:06-05

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Keywords: Monetary policy Econometric models

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  32. Jushan Bai & Pierre Perron, 1998. "Estimating and Testing Linear Models with Multiple Structural Changes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(1), pages 47-78, January.
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(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. Marco Lombardi & Silvia Sgherri, 2007. "(Un)naturally Low? Sequential Monte Carlo Tracking of the US Natural Interest Rate," DNB Working Papers 142, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
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