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A gains from trade perspective on macroeconomic fluctuations

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  • Beaudry, Paul
  • Portier, Franck

Abstract

Business cycles reflect changes over time in the amount of trade between individuals. In this paper we show that incorporating explicitly intra-temporal gains from trade between individuals into a macroeconomic model can provide new insight into the potential mechanisms driving economic fluctuations as well as modify key policy implications. We first show how a gains from trade approach can easily explain why changes in perceptions about the future (including news about the future and risk shocks) can cause booms and bust. We then turn to fiscal policy, and discuss under what conditions fiscal multipliers can be observed. While much of our analysis is conducted in a flexible price environment, we also present implications of our model for a sticky price environments, as it allows to understand stable-inflation boom-bust cycles. The source of the explicit gains from trade in our setup derives from simply assuming that in the short run workers are not perfect mobile across all sectors of the economy. We provide evidence from the PSID in support of this modeling assumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Beaudry, Paul & Portier, Franck, 2012. "A gains from trade perspective on macroeconomic fluctuations," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-002, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Munechika Katayama & Kwang Hwan Kim, 2018. "Intersectoral Labor Immobility, Sectoral Comovement, and News Shocks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(1), pages 77-114, February.
    2. Munechika Katayama & Kwang Hwan Kim, 2018. "Uncertainty Shocks and the Relative Price of Investment Goods," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 30, pages 163-178, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    business cycle; investment; heterogeneous agents;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles

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