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Aggregate demand shocks, private signals and employment variability: Can better information be harmful?

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  • James, Jonathan G.
  • Lawler, Phillip

Abstract

The consequences of private information concerning the realization of aggregate demand shocks are investigated in the context of a standard macroeconomic model. It is found that an improvement in information quality can be damaging, in the sense of amplifying employment fluctuations. The source of this result is an externality arising from individual firm wage decisions, which leads to a collective over-reaction to private information.

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  • James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2008. "Aggregate demand shocks, private signals and employment variability: Can better information be harmful?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 101-104, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:100:y:2008:i:1:p:101-104
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2007. "Supply shocks, private sector information and monetary policy: Is there inevitably a stabilization trade-off?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 77-83, July.
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    7. Laurence Ball, 1988. "Is Equilibrium Indexation Efficient?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(2), pages 299-311.
    8. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2006. "Might a conservative central banker reduce employment variability?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 367-373, December.
    9. Stephen Morris & Hyun Song Shin, 2002. "Social Value of Public Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1521-1534, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2009. "Aggregate demand shocks, central bank preferences and macroeconomic outcomes with imperfect information," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 208-210, December.
    2. Jin Yeub Kim & Myungkyu Shim, 2022. "Information Inequality and the Role of Public Information," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 38, pages 207-230.
    3. James, Jonathan G. & Lawler, Phillip, 2012. "Heterogeneous information quality; strategic complementarities and optimal policy design," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 342-352.
    4. Meixing Dai & Moïse Sidiropoulos, 2017. "How multiplicative uncertainty affects the tradeoff between information disclosure and stabilisation policy?," Working Papers of BETA 2017-15, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    5. Jonathan G. James & Phillip Lawler, 2012. "Strategic Complementarity, Stabilization Policy, and the Optimal Degree of Publicity," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 551-572, June.

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