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Identifying Modern Macro Equations with Old Shocks

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  • Barnichon, Regis
  • Mesters, Geert

Abstract

Despite decades of research, the consistent estimation of structural forward looking macroeconomic equations remains a formidable empirical challenge because of pervasive endogeneity issues. Prominent cases ---the estimation of Phillips curves, of Euler equations for consumption or output, or of monetary policy rules--- have typically relied on using pre-determined variables as instruments, with mixed success. In this work, we propose a new approach that consists in using sequences of independently identified structural shocks as instrumental variables. Our approach is robust to weak instruments and is valid regardless of the shocks' variance contribution. We estimate a Phillips curve using monetary shocks as instruments and find that conventional methods (i) substantially under-estimate the slope of the Phillips curve and (ii) over-estimate the role of forward-looking inflation expectations.

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  • Barnichon, Regis & Mesters, Geert, 2019. "Identifying Modern Macro Equations with Old Shocks," CEPR Discussion Papers 13765, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13765
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    2. Marco Del Negro & Michele Lenza & Giorgio E. Primiceri & Andrea Tambalotti, 2020. "What's Up with the Phillips Curve?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 51(1 (Spring), pages 301-373.
    3. Adam Hale Shapiro, "undated". "Decomposing Supply and Demand Driven Inflation," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2023-03, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Nov 2023.
    4. Thibault Lemaire, 2020. "Phillips in A Revolution: Unemployment and Prices in Early 21st Century Egypt," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03948605, HAL.
    5. Combes, Jean-Louis & Lesuisse, Pierre, 2022. "Inflation and unemployment, new insights during the EMU accession," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 124-142.
    6. Mario Giarda, 2021. "The Labor Earnings Gap, Heterogeneous Wage Phillips Curves, and Monetary Policy," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 934, Central Bank of Chile.
    7. Michael McLeay & Silvana Tenreyro, 2020. "Optimal Inflation and the Identification of the Phillips Curve," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 199-255.
    8. Alloza, Mario & Sanz, Carlos & Gonzalo, Jesús, 2019. "Dynamic Effects of Persistent Shocks," UC3M Working papers. Economics 29187, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    9. Rodnyansky, Alexander & Van der Ghote, Alejandro & Wales, Daniel, 2022. "Product quality, measured inflation and monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2680, European Central Bank.
    10. Drago Bergholt & Francesco Furlanetto & Etienne Vaccaro-Grange, 2023. "Did monetary policy kill the Phillips Curve? Some simple arithmetics," Working Paper 2023/2, Norges Bank.
    11. Alisdair McKay & Christian K. Wolf, 2023. "What Can Time‐Series Regressions Tell Us About Policy Counterfactuals?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(5), pages 1695-1725, September.
    12. Davide Debortoli & Mario Forni & Luca Gambetti & Luca Sala, 2020. "Asymmetric monetary policy tradeoffs," Economics Working Papers 1742, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Sep 2023.
    13. Bowen Fu, Ivan Mendieta-Muñoz, 2023. "Structural shocks and trend inflation," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2023_04, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    14. Mario Forni & Luca Gambetti & Nicolò Maffei-Faccioli & Luca Sala, 2023. "The impact of financial shocks on the forecast distribution of output and inflation," Working Paper 2023/3, Norges Bank.
    15. Alexander Doser & Ricardo Nunes & Nikhil Rao & Viacheslav Sheremirov, 2023. "Inflation expectations and nonlinearities in the Phillips curve," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(4), pages 453-471, June.
    16. Portier, Franck & Beaudry, Paul & Hou, Chenyu, 2020. "Monetary Policy when the Phillips Curve is Locally Quite Flat," CEPR Discussion Papers 15184, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Matthew Rognlie, 2019. "Comment on "Optimal Inflation and the Identification of the Phillips Curve"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2019, volume 34, pages 267-279, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Aragón, Edilean Kleber da Silva Bejarano & Galvão, Ana Beatriz, 2023. "Shock-based inference on the Phillips curve with the cost channel," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    19. Adam Hale Shapiro, 2022. "Decomposing Supply and Demand Driven Inflation," Working Paper Series 2022-18, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Structural equations; Instrumental variables; Impulse responses; Robust inference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General
    • 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
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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