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The rise and fall of the natural interest rate

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriele Fiorentini

    (Università di Firenze)

  • Alessandro Galesi

    (Banco de España)

  • Gabriel Pérez-Quirós

    (Banco de España)

  • Enrique Sentana

    (CEMFI)

Abstract

We document a rise and fall of the natural interest rate (r*) for several advanced economies, which starts increasing in the 1960’s and peaks around the end of the 1980’s. We reach this conclusion after showing that the Laubach and Williams (2003) model cannot estimate r* accurately when either the IS curve or the Phillips curve is fl at. In those empirically relevant situations, a local level specifi cation for the observed interest rate can precisely estimate r*. An estimated Panel ECM suggests that the temporary demographic effect of the young baby-boomers mostly accounts for the rise and fall.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriele Fiorentini & Alessandro Galesi & Gabriel Pérez-Quirós & Enrique Sentana, 2018. "The rise and fall of the natural interest rate," Working Papers 1822, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:1822
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    natural rate of interest; Kalman fi lter; observability; demographics.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models

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