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Aggregate Employment, Real Business Cycles, and Superior Information

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We test whether dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium artificial economies associated with several labor market institutions provide an adequate characterization of aggregate employment volatility and dynamics. Our test is robust to possible misspecifications about the information set used by economic agents to forecast future events. Accounting for the agents' superior information, we find that the divisible labor, indivisible labor, and labor hoarding structures replicate employment volatility, in contrast to the nominal wage contracts and labor adjustment costs structures. Also, the labor hoarding structure provides a substantially better account of employment dynamics than the other labor market structures.

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  • Martin Boileau & Michel Normandin, 1997. "Aggregate Employment, Real Business Cycles, and Superior Information," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 55, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal.
    • Handle: RePEc:cre:crefwp:55
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Boileau & Michel Normandin, 2012. "Do tax cuts generate twin deficits? A multi-country analysis," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(4), pages 1667-1699, November.
    2. Boileau, Martin & Normandin, Michel, 2008. "Dynamics of the current account and interest differentials," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 35-52, January.
    3. Martin Boileau & Michel Normandin, 1999. "Capacity Utilization and the Dynamics of Business Cycle Fluctuations," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 92, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal.
    4. Boileau, Martin & Normandin, Michel, 2003. "Capacity utilization, superior information, and the business cycle," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 283-309, September.
    5. James M. Nason & Gregor W. Smith, 2008. "Identifying the new Keynesian Phillips curve," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(5), pages 525-551.
    6. Johri, Alok & Letendre, Marc-Andre, 2007. "What do `residuals' from first-order conditions reveal about DGE models?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 2744-2773, August.
    7. Boileau, Martin & Normandin, Michel, 2003. "Labor hoarding, superior information, and business cycle dynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 397-418, November.
    8. Michel Normandin, 2004. "Econometric Inference, Cyclical Fluctuations, and Superior Information," Cahiers de recherche 04-13, HEC Montréal, Institut d'économie appliquée.
    9. Foued Chihi & Michel Normandin, 2008. "External and Budget Deficits in Developing Countries," Cahiers de recherche 0819, CIRPEE.
    10. Michel Normandin, 2006. "Fiscal Policies, External Deficits, and Budget Deficits," Cahiers de recherche 0632, CIRPEE.
    11. Martin Boileau & Michel Normandin, 2002. "General equilibrium macroeconomic models and superior information," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(11), pages 727-730.
    12. Chihi, Foued & Normandin, Michel, 2013. "External and budget deficits in some developing countries," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 77-98.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor Market Institutions; Employment Dynamics and Volatility.;

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

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