<p>This thesis consists of four self-contained essays.</p><p><b>Essay 1</b> compares the dynamic behaviour of an estimated New Keynesian sticky-price model with one-period delayed effects of monetary policy shocks to the dynamics of a structural vector autoregression model. The model is estimated with Bayesian techniques on German pre-EMU data. The dynamics of the sticky-price model following either a demand shock or monetary policy shock are qualitatively and quantitatively comparable to those of the estimated structural VAR. When compared to the delayed-effects model, an alternative model with contemporaneous effects of monetary policy is rejected according to the posterior-odds ratio criterion.</p><p><b>Essay 2</b> addresses the transmission of exchange-rate variations in an estimated, small open-economy model. In contrast to the standard New Open Economy Macroeconomics framework, imported goods are treated here as material inputs to production. The resulting model structure is transparent and tractable while also able to account for imperfect pass through of exchange-rate shocks. The model is estimated with Bayesian methods on German data and the key finding is that a substantial depreciation of the nominal exchange rate leads to only modest effects on CPI inflation. An extended version of the model reveals that relatively small weight is placed on foreign consumption.</p><p><b>Essay 3</b> (with Annika Alexius) analyses the strong responses of long-term interest rates to shocks that are difficult to explain with standard macroeconomic models. Augmenting the standard model to include a time-varying equilibrium real interest rate generates forward rates that exhibit considerable movement at long horizons in response to movements of the policy-controlled short rate. In terms of coefficients from regressions of long-rate changes on short-rate movements, incorporating a time-varying natural rate explains a significant fraction of the excess sensitivity puzzle.</p><p><b>Essay 4</b> (with Pär Österholm) argues that the common finding of a large and significant coefficient on the lagged interest rate in Taylor rules may be the consequence of misspecification, specifically an omitted variables problem. Our Monte Carlo study shows that omitting relevant variables from the estimated Taylor rule can generate significant partial-adjustment coefficients, despite the data generating process containing no interest-rate smoothing. We further show that misspecification leads to considerable size distortions in two recently proposed tests to distinguish between interest-rate.</p>

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. <b>Essay 1</b> compares the dynamic behaviour of an estimated New Keynesian sticky-price model with one-period delayed effects of monetary policy shocks to the dynamics of a structural vector autoregression model. The model is estimated with Bayesian techniques on German pre-EMU data. The dynamics of the sticky-price model following either a demand shock or monetary policy shock are qualitatively and quantitatively comparable to those of the estimated structural VAR. When compared to the delayed-effects model, an alternative model with contemporaneous effects of monetary policy is rejected according to the posterior-odds ratio criterion. <b>Essay 2</b> addresses the transmission of exchange-rate variations in an estimated, small open-economy model. In contrast to the standard New Open Economy Macroeconomics framework, imported goods are treated here as material inputs to production. The resulting model structure is transparent and tractable while also able to account for imperfect pass through of exchange-rate shocks. The model is estimated with Bayesian methods on German data and the key finding is that a substantial depreciation of the nominal exchange rate leads to only modest effects on CPI inflation. An extended version of the model reveals that relatively small weight is placed on foreign consumption. <b>Essay 3</b> (with Annika Alexius) analyses the strong responses of long-term interest rates to shocks that are difficult to explain with standard macroeconomic models. Augmenting the standard model to include a time-varying equilibrium real interest rate generates forward rates that exhibit considerable movement at long horizons in response to movements of the policy-controlled short rate. In terms of coefficients from regressions of long-rate changes on short-rate movements, incorporating a time-varying natural rate explains a significant fraction of the excess sensitivity puzzle. <b>Essay 4</b> (with Pär Österholm) argues that the common finding of a large and significant coefficient on the lagged interest rate in Taylor rules may be the consequence of misspecification, specifically an omitted variables problem. Our Monte Carlo study shows that omitting relevant variables from the estimated Taylor rule can generate significant partial-adjustment coefficients, despite the data generating process containing no interest-rate smoothing. We further show that misspecification leads to considerable size distortions in two recently proposed tests to distinguish between interest-rate.

The NAIRU theory has become the mainstream theory in explaining unemployment in Europe and is often used to justify demands for a cutback of the welfare state, reducing unemployment benefits, reducing minimum wages, decentralizing collective bargaining etc. Close inspection reveals that it nonetheless shares some arguments with Post Keynesian and even Marxist theory. The paper proposes an underdetermined, encompassing NAIRU model, which is consistent with several theoretical tradtions. Depending on the closure with respect to demand formation and determination of the NAIRU itself, the model allows for New Keynesian, Post Keynesian and Marxist results. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Submitted by Felix Sebastian Neugebauer (fexgebauer@gmail.com) on 2012-01-20T06:47:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao MPGI - Felix Neugebauer.pdf: 917872 bytes, checksum: 216f642b7bdd46aac088024cf0610158 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzinei Teles Garcia Garcia (suzinei.garcia@fgv.br) on 2012-01-20T10:27:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao MPGI - Felix Neugebauer.pdf: 917872 bytes, checksum: 216f642b7bdd46aac088024cf0610158 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-01-20T11:15:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao MPGI - Felix Neugebauer.pdf: 917872 bytes, checksum: 216f642b7bdd46aac088024cf0610158 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-20 / The thesis introduces a system dynamics Taylor rule model of new Keynesian nature for monetary policy feedback in Brazil. The nonlinear Taylor rule for interest rate changes con-siders gaps and dynamics of GDP growth and inflation. The model closely tracks the 2004 to 2011 business cycle and outlines the endogenous feedback between the real interest rate, GDP growth and inflation. The model identifies a high degree of endogenous feedback for monetary policy and inflation, while GDP growth remains highly exposed to exogenous eco-nomic conditions. The results also show that the majority of the monetary policy moves during the sample period was related to GDP growth, despite higher coefficients of inflation parameters in the Taylor rule. This observation challenges the intuition that inflation target-ing leads to a dominance of monetary policy moves with respect to inflation. Furthermore, the results suggest that backward looking price-setting with respect to GDP growth has been the dominant driver of inflation. Moreover, simulation exercises highlight the effects of the new BCB strategy initiated in August 2011 and also consider recession and inflation avoid-ance versions of the Taylor rule. In methodological terms, the Taylor rule model highlights the advantages of system dynamics with respect to nonlinear policies and to the stock-and-flow approach. In total, the strong historical fit and some counterintuitive observations of the Taylor rule model call for an application of the model to other economies.

Ce travail propose une mise en perspective des pratiques de modélisation macroéconomique,depuis les travaux de Robert E. Lucas dans les années 1970 jusqu’aux contributions actuelles de l’approche dite d’équilibre général dynamique stochastique (DSGE). Cette mise en perspective permet de caractériser l’essor des modèles DSGE comme un compromis entre conceptions antagonistes de la modélisation : d’une part, celle de l’approche des cycles réels (RBC) et, d’autre part, celle de la nouvelle économie keynésienne. Pour justifier cette opposition, ce travail propose une reconstruction épistémologique de l’histoire récente de la macroéconomie, à savoir une analyse des différents critères qui définissent la validité et la pertinence d’un modèle. L’hypothèse de travail est qu’on peut identifier, pour chaque pratique de modélisation,trois critères méthodologiques fondamentaux : la validité interne (l’adéquation des hypothèses d’un modèle aux concepts aux formalismes d’une théorie), la validité externe(l’adéquation des hypothèses et/ou des résultats d’un modèle au monde réel, et les procédés quantitatifs pour évaluer cette adéquation) et le critère de hiérarchie (la préférence pour la validité interne sur la validité externe, ou vice versa). Cette grille de lecture, inspirée de la littérature sur les modèles en philosophie des sciences, permet d’apporter quatre contributions originales à l’histoire de la macroéconomie récente. (1) Elle permet de concevoir l’essor des modèles DSGE sans faire appel à l’explication proposée par l’historiographie produite par les macroéconomistes eux-mêmes,à savoir l’existence d’un consensus et d’un progrès technique exogène. Contre cette vision de l’histoire en termes de progrès scientifique, nous mettons en avant les oppositions méthodologiques au sein de la macroéconomie et nous illustrons l’interdépendance entre activité théorique et développement des méthodes statistiques et économétriques. (2) La thèse s’attaque au cloisonnement entre histoire des théories macroéconomiques et histoire des méthodes quantitatives. Grâce à sa perspective méthodologique, ce travail permet d’opérer la jonction entre ces deux littératures et de développer les bases d’une vision globale des transformations récentes de la macroéconomie. (3) La relecture méthodologique de l’histoire de la modélisation permet de mettre en évidence comment la condition de validité externe a représenté le principal point de clivage entre différentes conceptions de la modélisation. La question de la validité externe apparaît par ailleurs intrinsèquement liée à la question de l’explication causale des phénomènes, sur laquelle repose largement la justification de la modélisation comme outil d’expertise des politiques économiques. (4) Ce travail aboutit à une caractérisation originale de l’approche DSGE : loin de constituer une «synthèse» ou un consensus, cette approche s’apparente à un compromis, fragilisé par l’antagonisme méthodologique entre ses parties prenantes. / This dissertation provides a history of macroeconomic modeling practices from RobertE. Lucas’s works in the 1970s up to today’s dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) approach. Working from a historical perspective, I suggest that the recent rise of DSGE models should be characterized as a compromise between opposing views of modeling methodology—on the one hand, the real business cycle (RBC) view, on the other hand, the new Keynesian view. In order to justify this claim, my work provides an epistemological reconstruction of the recent history of macroeconomics, building from ananalysis of the criteria defining the validity and the pertinence of a model. My assumption is that recent macroeconomic modeling practices can be described by three distinctive methodological criteria : the internal validity criterion (which establishes the consistency between models’ assumptions and concepts and formalisms of a theory), the external validity criterion (which establishes the consistency between the assumptions and results of a model and the real world, as well as the quantitative methods needed to assess such a consistency) and the hierarchization criterion (which establishes the preference for internal over external validity, or vice versa). This epistemological reconstruction draws primarily from the literature about models in the philosophy of science. My work aims to make four contributions to the history of recent macroeconomics. (1) To understand the rise of DSGE models without referring to the explanation providedby the macroeconomists themselves, who tend to think that macroeconomics evolved through theoretical consensus and exogenous technical progress. By distancing itself fromthis perspective, my work draws attention to the disruptive character of methodological controversies and to the interdependence between theoretical activity and the developmentof statistical and econometric methods. (2) To overcome the existing divide betweenthe history of macroeconomic theories and the history of quantitative methods. Throughits epistemological perspective, my work reconciles these two historiographies and specifiesthe basis for a comprehensive understanding of recent developments in macroeconomics.(3) To put the accent on the external validity condition as the main controversial issue separating different views of macro-modeling methodology. Furthermore, I illustrate how the debate about external validity is closely related to the problem of casual explanation and, finally, to the conditions for providing economic policy evaluation. (4) To characterize the DSGE approach: although DSGE models are often presented as a“synthesis”, or as a “consensus”, they are better described as a shaky compromise between two opposing methodological visions.

The aim of the master thesis is to empirically analyze if there is a support for new classics or new Keynesians as a dominant theory of short-run aggregate supply curve. The analysis is based on dynamic panel data model for 38 countries and period between 1970 and 2014. Because the results show some evidence on negative significance of level of inflation in contrast with its variability, I conclude that there is support for the new Keynesian theory. I focus on examination of the panel data assumptions such as the stationarity of explanatory variables, existence of the individual or random effects, validity of homogeneity of slope coefficients and mainly the cross-sectional dependence of error terms. After testing for these assumptions, I choose the most suitable method of estimation for dynamic panel data models. I use these methods for analyzing both linear and non-linear specification of the given model. As a result, we can see that the selection of right estimation method plays a great role in final outcomes. I also check model robustness by including changes of real oil price as a proxy variable for the supply shock in the economy.