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Using a Bayesian likelihood approach, we estimate a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for the US economy using seven macroeconomic time series. The model incorporates many types of real and nominal frictions and seven types of structural shocks. We show that this model is able to compete with Bayesian Vector Autoregression models in out-of-sample prediction. We investigate the relative empirical importance of the various frictions. Finally, using the estimated model, we address a number of key issues in business cycle analysis: What are the sources of business cycle fluctuations? Can the model explain the cross correlation between output and inflation? What are the effects of productivity on hours worked? What are the sources of the \"Great Moderation\"?

This paper develops and estimates a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with sticky prices and wages for the euro area. The model incorporates various other features such as habit formation, costs of adjustment in capital accumulation and variable capacity utilization. It is estimated with Bayesian techniques using seven key macroeconomic variables: GDP, consumption, investment, prices, real wages, employment, and the nominal interest rate. The introduction of ten orthogonal structural shocks (including productivity, labor supply, investment, preference, cost-push, and monetary policy shocks) allows for an empirical investigation of the effects of such shocks and of their contribution to business cycle fluctuations in the euro area. Using the estimated model, we also analyze the output (real interest rate) gap, defined as the difference between the actual and model-based potential output (real interest rate).

This paper estimates a DSGE model with many types of shocks and frictions for both the US and the euro area economy over a common sample period (1974-2002). The structural estimation methodology allows us to investigate whether differences in business cycle behaviour are due to differences in the type of shocks that affect the two economies, differences in the propagation mechanism of those shocks, or differences in the way the central bank responds to those economic developments. Our main conclusion is that each of these characteristics is remarkably similar across both currency areas.

We first estimate the effects of a euro area-wide monetary policy change on output growth in eleven industries of seven euro area countries over the period 1980-98. On average the negative effect of an interest rate tightening on output is significantly greater in recessions than in booms. There is, however, considerable cross-industry heterogeneity in both the overall policy effects and the degree of asymmetry across the two business cycle phases. We then explore which industry characteristics can account for this cross-industry heterogeneity. Differences in the overall policy effects can mainly be explained by the durability of the goods produced in the sector. This can be regarded as evidence for the conventional interest rate/cost-of-capital channel. In contrast, differences in the degree of asymmetry of policy effects are related to differences in financial structure, in particular the maturity structure of debt, the coverage ratio, financial leverage and firm size. This suggests that financial accelerator mechanisms can partly explain cross-industry differences in asymmetry.

This paper analyses the implications of heterogeneity in the type of downward wage rigidity (nominal or real) for optimal monetary policy in a monetary union with asymmetric wage adjustment costs. Indexation in one region of the union reduces optimal grease inflation in the presence of common productivity shocks. Large common shocks may have sizeable and persistent effects on the intra-union terms of trade, whereby the region characterized by downward real wage rigidity adjusts with a persistent loss of competitiveness. In response to asymmetric productivity shocks, there is no role for grease inflation because relative price changes facilitating the real wage changes dominate the adjustment mechanism.

On June 1, 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) celebrated its 20th anniversary. This paper provides a comprehensive view of the ECB’s monetary policy over these two decades. The first section gives a chronological account of the macroeconomic and monetary policy developments in the euro area since the adoption of the euro in 1999, going through four cyclical phases “conditioning” ECB monetary policy. We describe the monetary policy decisions from the ECB’s perspective and against the background of its evolving monetary policy strategy and framework. We also highlight a number of the key, critical issues that were the subject of debate. The second section contains various assessments. We analyze the achievement of the price stability mandate and developments in the ECB’s credibility, and we also investigate the ECB’s interest rate decisions through the lens of a simple empirical interest rate reaction function. Finally, we present the ECB’s framework for thinking about nonstandard monetary policy measures and review the evidence on their effectiveness. One of the main themes of the paper is how the ECB utilized its monetary policy to respond to the challenges posed by the European twin financial and sovereign debt crises and the subsequent slow economic recovery, making use of its relatively wide range of instruments, defining new ones where necessary, and developing the strategic underpinnings of its policy framework.

Banking crises are rare events that break out in the midst of credit-intensive booms and bring about deep and long-lasting recessions. This paper presents a textbook dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to explain these phenomena. The model features a nontrivial banking sector, where bank heterogeneity gives rise to an interbank market. Moral hazard and asymmetric information in this market may lead to sudden market freezes, banking crises, credit crunches, and severe “financial” recessions. Those recessions follow credit booms and are not necessarily triggered by large exogenous adverse shocks.

This article investigates the business cycle behaviour of measures of perceived uncertainty and financial risk premia in Germany over the past two decades. Both the perceived uncertainty and the financial risk premia are highly countercyclical and may therefore amplify and propagate the transmission of business cycle shocks. We find that exogenous uncertainty shocks have a significantly small but temporary effect on output and financial risk premia and their overall contribution to output developments is limited. Positive financial risk aversion shocks, on the contrary, have a protractred but large negative impact on the economy and are more important in driving business cycles than uncertainty shocks. (JEL codes: E32, E44, G01, G20) Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

Short-term rates have been negative in the eurozone since 2014. This paper demonstrates that the central bank has been constrained in its responses to a disinflationary environment after the financial crisis. The ECB’s new strategy, adopted in July 2021, emphasizes a disinflation control objective. Will interest rates, which are in fact directed by the ECB, be able to evolve naturally at a level consistent with potential growth and the inflation target of around 2% ?

Over the past decade an increasing number of central banks and other policy institutions have developed and estimated medium-scale New Keynesian DSGE models. The combination of a good empirical fit with a sound, microfounded structure makes these models particularly suitable for forecasting and policy analysis. Recently, a number of papers have started to address this shortcoming by embedding in the basic New Keynesian model various theories of unemployment based on the presence of labor market frictions. Unemployment in the model results from market power in labor markets, reflected in positive wage markups. Variations in unemployment over time are associated with changes in wage markups, either exogenous or resulting from nominal wage rigidities.