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Is the Business Cycles a Necessary Consequence of Stochastic Growth?

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  • Julio J. Rotemberg
  • Michael Woodford

Abstract

We compute the forecastable changes in output, consumption, and hours implied by a VAR that includes the growth rate of private value added, the share of output that is consumed, and the detrended level of private hours. We show that the size of the forecastable changes in output greatly exceeds that predicted by a standard stochastic growth model, of the kind studied by real business cycle theorists. Contrary to the model's implications, forecastable movements in labor productivity are small and only weakly related to forecasted changes in output. Also, forecasted movements in investment and hours are positively correlated with forecasted movements in output. Finally, and again in contrast to what the growth model implies, forecasted output movements are positively related to the current level of the consumption share and negatively related to the level of hours. We also show that these contrasts between the model and the observations are robust to allowance for measurement error and a variety of other types of transitory disturbances.

Suggested Citation

  • Julio J. Rotemberg & Michael Woodford, 1994. "Is the Business Cycles a Necessary Consequence of Stochastic Growth?," NBER Working Papers 4650, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:4650
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    Cited by:

    1. Rotemberg, Julio J., 1996. "Prices, output, and hours: An empirical analysis based on a sticky price model," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 505-533, June.
    2. Kiley, Michael T, 2000. "Endogenous Price Stickiness and Business Cycle Persistence," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(1), pages 28-53, February.
    3. Dufourt, Frederic, 2005. "Demand and productivity components of business cycles: Estimates and implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 1089-1105, September.
    4. Robert G. King, 1995. "Quantitative theory and econometrics," Economic Quarterly, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, issue Sum, pages 53-105.
    5. Philip A. Shively, 2001. "Trend-stationary GNP: evidence from a new exact pointwise most powerful invariant unit root test," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 537-551.
    6. Frédéric Dufourt, 2005. "Demand and Productivity Components of Business Cycles : Estimates and Implications," Working Papers halshs-00789009, HAL.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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