IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jebusi/v109y2020ics0148619519301328.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A real business cycle model with money as a sunspot variable

Author

Listed:
  • Wilson, Matthew S.

Abstract

A well-known criticism of the RBC model is that it cannot match the data on money. Due to the perfect flexibility of prices and the absence of frictions, any exogenous increase in the money supply will be fully offset by wage and price increases, implying that money is neutral even in the short run. However, beliefs that money is non-neutral could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. By using money as a sunspot variable in an RBC model, I successfully replicate many of the correlations in the data, even though money does not directly affect the economy’s fundamentals. This shows that models with flexible prices are not necessarily incompatible with the monetary data and offers support for the use of sunspot variables in macroeconomics.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson, Matthew S., 2020. "A real business cycle model with money as a sunspot variable," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:109:y:2020:i:c:s0148619519301328
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconbus.2020.105891
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148619519301328
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2020.105891?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blanchard, Olivier Jean & Quah, Danny, 1989. "The Dynamic Effects of Aggregate Demand and Supply Disturbances," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 655-673, September.
    2. Cooley, Thomas F & Hansen, Gary D, 1989. "The Inflation Tax in a Real Business Cycle Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 733-748, September.
    3. Roger E. A. Farmer, 1997. "Money in a real business cycle model," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Nov, pages 568-623.
    4. Barro, Robert J, 1977. "Unanticipated Money Growth and Unemployment in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(2), pages 101-115, March.
    5. Gavin, William T. & Kydland, Finn E. & Pakko, Michael R., 2007. "Monetary policy, taxes, and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1587-1611, September.
    6. Dia, Enzo & VanHoose, David, 2017. "Banking in macroeconomic theory and policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 54(PB), pages 149-160.
    7. Frank Smets & Raf Wouters, 2005. "Comparing shocks and frictions in US and euro area business cycles: a Bayesian DSGE Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 161-183.
    8. Kuttner, Kenneth N., 2001. "Monetary policy surprises and interest rates: Evidence from the Fed funds futures market," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 523-544, June.
    9. James D. Hamilton, 2018. "Why You Should Never Use the Hodrick-Prescott Filter," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(5), pages 831-843, December.
    10. Benhabib, Jess & Farmer, Roger E. A., 1996. "Indeterminacy and sector-specific externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 421-443, June.
    11. Azariadis, Costas & Bullard, James & Ohanian, Lee, 2004. "Trend-reverting fluctuations in the life-cycle model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 334-356, December.
    12. Finn E. Kydland & Scott Freeman, 2000. "Monetary Aggregates and Output," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1125-1135, December.
    13. Jess Benhabib & Roger E.A. Farmer, 2000. "The Monetary Transmission Mechanism," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(3), pages 523-550, July.
    14. Mishkin, Frederic S, 1982. "Does Anticipated Monetary Policy Matter? An Econometric Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(1), pages 22-51, February.
    15. Stefano Bosi & Francesco Magris & Alain Venditti, 2007. "Sunspot Fluctuations in Two-sector Economies with Heterogeneous Agents," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 33(2), pages 311-331, November.
    16. Christiano, Lawrence J & Eichenbaum, Martin, 1992. "Liquidity Effects and the Monetary Transmission Mechanism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 346-353, May.
    17. Belongia, Michael T. & Ireland, Peter N., 2006. "The Own-Price of Money and the Channels of Monetary Transmission," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(2), pages 429-445, March.
    18. Francesco Caselli & James Feyrer, 2007. "The Marginal Product of Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 535-568.
    19. Michael T. Kiley, 1997. "Staggered price setting and real rigidities," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1997-46, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Stefano Bosi & Francesco Magris & Alain Venditti, 2005. "Multiple equilibria in a cash‐in‐advance two‐sector economy," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 1(2), pages 131-149, June.
    21. Jess Benhabib & Roger E.A. Farmer, 1991. "The Aggregate Effects of Monetary Externalities," UCLA Economics Working Papers 617, UCLA Department of Economics.
    22. Barinci, Jean-Paul & Cheron, Arnaud, 2001. "Sunspots and the Business Cycle in a Finance Constrained Economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 30-49, March.
    23. Shaghil Ahmed & Radha Murthy, 1994. "Money, Output, and Real Business Cycles in a Small Open Economy," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 27(4), pages 982-993, November.
    24. Frydman, Roman & Rappoport, Peter, 1987. "Is the Distinction between Anticipated and Unanticipated Money Growth Relevant in Explaining Aggregate Output?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 693-703, September.
    25. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G, 1997. "Returns to Scale in U.S. Production: Estimates and Implications," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(2), pages 249-283, April.
    26. Fackler, James S & Parker, Randall E, 1990. "Anticipated Money, Unanticipated Money, and Output: 1873-1930," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(4), pages 774-787, October.
    27. McGee, Robert T & Stasiak, Richard T, 1985. "Does Anticipated Monetary Policy Matter? Another Look," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 17(1), pages 16-27, February.
    28. Andrews, Donald W K, 1993. "Tests for Parameter Instability and Structural Change with Unknown Change Point," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 61(4), pages 821-856, July.
    29. Burnside, Craig, 1996. "Production function regressions, returns to scale, and externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 177-201, April.
    30. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin S. Eichenbaum, 1992. "Liquidity effects, the monetary transmission mechanism, and monetary policy," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 16(Nov), pages 2-14.
    31. Lubik, Thomas A. & Schorfheide, Frank, 2003. "Computing sunspot equilibria in linear rational expectations models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 273-285, November.
    32. Sustek, Roman, 2010. "Monetary aggregates and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 451-465, May.
    33. Sossounov, Kirill A, 2000. "Analyzing Indeterminacies in a Real Business Cycle Model with Money: A Comment," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 32(2), pages 280-291, May.
    34. Christina D. Romer & David H. Romer, 2004. "A New Measure of Monetary Shocks: Derivation and Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1055-1084, September.
    35. Barro, Robert J, 1978. "Unanticipated Money, Output, and the Price Level in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(4), pages 549-580, August.
    36. Nelson, Charles R. & Plosser, Charles I., 1982. "Trends and random walks in macroeconmic time series : Some evidence and implications," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 139-162.
    37. Guo, Jang-Ting & Harrison, Sharon G., 2001. "Indeterminacy with capital utilization and sector-specific externalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 355-360, September.
    38. Farmer Roger E. A. & Guo Jang-Ting, 1994. "Real Business Cycles and the Animal Spirits Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 42-72, June.
    39. Benhabib, Jess & Farmer, Roger E.A., 1999. "Indeterminacy and sunspots in macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 6, pages 387-448, Elsevier.
    40. King, Robert G & Plosser, Charles I, 1984. "Money, Credit, and Prices in a Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 363-380, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. W D A Bryant, 2009. "General Equilibrium:Theory and Evidence," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 6875, September.
    2. Paul Oslington, 2012. "General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(282), pages 446-448, September.
    3. Ramey, V.A., 2016. "Macroeconomic Shocks and Their Propagation," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 71-162, Elsevier.
    4. Dressler, Scott J., 2009. "Economies of scale in banking, confidence shocks, and business cycles," MPRA Paper 13310, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Stephanie Schmitt-Grohe, 2000. "Endogenous Business Cycles and the Dynamics of Output, Hours, and Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1136-1159, December.
    6. Bosi, Stefano & Magris, Francesco, 2003. "Indeterminacy and endogenous fluctuations with arbitrarily small liquidity constraint," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 39-51, March.
    7. Dia, Enzo & VanHoose, David, 2017. "Banking in macroeconomic theory and policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 54(PB), pages 149-160.
    8. Barinci, Jean-Paul & Chéron, Arnaud, 2001. "Real business cycles and the animal spirits hypothesis in a CIA economy," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 0110, CEPREMAP.
    9. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 1998. "Indeterminacy and Stabilization Policy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 481-490, October.
    10. Frédéric Dufourt & Kazuo Nishimura & Alain Venditti, 2022. "Expectations, self-fulfilling prophecies and the business cycle," Working Papers hal-03923946, HAL.
    11. Jaimovich, Nir, 2007. "Firm dynamics and markup variations: Implications for sunspot equilibria and endogenous economic fluctuations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 300-325, November.
    12. Dia, Enzo & Menna, Lorenzo, 2016. "Productivity shocks, capital intensities, and bank interest rates," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 155-171.
    13. Prof. Neil D. Karunaratne, 1999. "Rival Macroeconomic Models And Australian Stylised Facts," Discussion Papers Series 261, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    14. Barinci, Jean-Paul & Cheron, Arnaud, 2001. "Sunspots and the Business Cycle in a Finance Constrained Economy," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 30-49, March.
    15. McCallum, Bennett T., 1990. "Inflation: Theory and evidence," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: B. M. Friedman & F. H. Hahn (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 18, pages 963-1012, Elsevier.
    16. Barinci, Jean-Paul & Chéron, Arnaud & Langot, Francois, 2006. "Liquidity Constraints, Heterogeneous Households And Sunspot Fluctuations," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(4), pages 529-544, September.
    17. Giammarioli, Nicola, 2003. "Indeterminacy and search theory," Working Paper Series 271, European Central Bank.
    18. Avouyi-Dovi, S. & Matheron, J. & Fève, P., 2007. "Les modèles DSGE – leur intérêt pour les banques centrales," Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 161, pages 41-54.
    19. Maxime MENUET & Alexandru MINEA & Patrick VILLIEU, 2019. "The Perils of Fiscal Rules," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2702, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    20. Herrendorf, Berthold & Valentinyi, Akos, 2006. "On the stability of the two-sector neoclassical growth model with externalities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 1339-1361, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sunspots; Indeterminacy; RBC; Money; Increasing returns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E2 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment
    • E3 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles
    • E4 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates
    • E5 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:109:y:2020:i:c:s0148619519301328. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-economics-and-business .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.