IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/red/issued/09-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the Effects of Technology Shocks

Author

Listed:
  • Pengfei Wang

    (Hong Kong University of Science & Technology)

  • Yi Wen

    (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Tsinghua University)

Abstract

The research led by Gali (AER 1999) and Basu, Fernald, and Kimball (AER 2006) raises two important questions regarding the validity of the RBC theory: (i) How important are technology shocks in explaining the business cycle? (ii) Do impulse responses to technology shocks found in the data reject the assumption of flexible prices? Using an RBC model, this paper argues that the conditional impulse responses of the U.S. economy to technology shocks are not grounds to reject the notion that technology shocks are the main driving force of the business cycle and the assumption of flexible prices, in contrast to the conclusions reached by the literature. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Pengfei Wang & Yi Wen, 2011. "Understanding the Effects of Technology Shocks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(4), pages 705-724, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:09-148
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2010.03.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2010.03.004
    Download Restriction: Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.red.2010.03.004?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Galí, Jordi & Rabanal, Pau, 2004. "Technology Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations: How Well Does the RBC Model Fit Post-War US Data?," CEPR Discussion Papers 4522, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Canova, Fabio & Michelacci, Claudio & López-Salido, J David, 2007. "The Labour Market Effects of Technology Shocks," CEPR Discussion Papers 6365, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Robert J. Vigfusson, 2004. "The delayed response to a technology shock: a flexible price explanation," International Finance Discussion Papers 810, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum & Robert Vigfusson, 2007. "Assessing Structural VARs," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2006, Volume 21, pages 1-106, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jonas D. M. Fisher, 2002. "Technology shocks matter," Working Paper Series WP-02-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen McKnight & Laura Povoledo, 2022. "Endogenous fluctuations and international business cycles," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 312-348, February.
    2. Jouini, Nizar & Rebei, Nooman, 2012. "The Welfare Implications of Services Liberalization in a Developing Country," Conference papers 332271, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    3. Fan, Haichao & Gao, Xiang & Xu, Juanyi & Xu, Zhiwei, 2016. "News shock, firm dynamics and business cycles: Evidence and theory," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 159-180.
    4. Marta Aloi & Huw Dixon & Anthony Savagar, 2021. "Labor Responses, Regulation, and Business Churn," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(1), pages 119-156, February.
    5. Rebei, Nooman, 2014. "What (really) accounts for the fall in hours after a technology shock?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 330-352.
    6. Hyeon-Seung Huh & David Kim, 2014. "Do SVAR Models Justify Discarding the Technology-Shock-Driven Real Business Cycle Hypothesis?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 90(288), pages 98-118, March.
    7. Choi, Yoonseok, 2020. "Macroeconomic implications of dynamically inconsistent preferences," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 267-279.
    8. Cantore, Cristiano & Ferroni, Filippo & León-Ledesma, Miguel A., 2017. "The dynamics of hours worked and technology," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 67-82.
    9. Mandelman, Federico S. & Zanetti, Francesco, 2014. "Flexible prices, labor market frictions and the response of employment to technology shocks," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 94-102.
    10. Jouini, Nizar & Rebei, Nooman, 2014. "The welfare implications of services liberalization in a developing country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-14.

    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. Fabio Canova & David López-Salido & Claudio Michelacci, 2006. "On the robust effects of technology shocks on hours worked and output," Economics Working Papers 1013, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Feb 2008.
    2. Dedola, Luca & Neri, Stefano, 2007. "What does a technology shock do? A VAR analysis with model-based sign restrictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 512-549, March.
    3. Patrick Fève & Alain Guay, 2010. "Identification of Technology Shocks in Structural Vars," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1284-1318, December.
    4. Yi Wen & Pengfei Wang, 2008. "A Defense of RBC:Understanding the Puzzling Effects of Technology Shocks," 2008 Meeting Papers 7, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Lovcha, Yuliya & Perez-Laborda, Alejandro, 2015. "The Hours Worked–Productivity Puzzle: Identification In A Fractional Integration Setting," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(7), pages 1593-1621, October.
    6. Giancarlo Corsetti & Luca Dedola & Sylvain Leduc, 2008. "Productivity, External Balance, and Exchange Rates: Evidence on the Transmission Mechanism among G7 Countries," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2006, pages 117-194, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bertinelli, Luisito & Cardi, Olivier & Restout, Romain, 2022. "Labor market effects of technology shocks biased toward the traded sector," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    8. Sergio Rebelo, 2005. "Real Business Cycle Models: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Working Papers 11401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Christopher J. Gust & Robert J. Vigfusson, 2009. "The power of long-run structural VARs," International Finance Discussion Papers 978, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Neville Francis & Valerie A. Ramey, 2009. "Measures of per Capita Hours and Their Implications for the Technology‐Hours Debate," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(6), pages 1071-1097, September.
    11. Canova, Fabio & Sala, Luca, 2009. "Back to square one: Identification issues in DSGE models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 431-449, May.
    12. Artuç, Erhan & Pourpourides, Panayiotis M., 2014. "R&D and aggregate fluctuations," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 54-71.
    13. Olivier Cardi & Romain Restout, 2023. "Why Hours Worked Decline Less after Technology Shocks?Â," Working Papers 396800288, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    14. Dupaigne, Martial & Feve, Patrick & Matheron, Julien, 2007. "Some analytics on bias in DSVARs," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 32-38, October.
    15. Gospodinov, Nikolay & Maynard, Alex & Pesavento, Elena, 2011. "Sensitivity of Impulse Responses to Small Low-Frequency Comovements: Reconciling the Evidence on the Effects of Technology Shocks," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 29(4), pages 455-467.
    16. Miles S. Kimball & John G. Fernald & Susanto Basu, 2006. "Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1418-1448, December.
    17. Fernald, John G., 2007. "Trend breaks, long-run restrictions, and contractionary technology improvements," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2467-2485, November.
    18. Chari, V.V. & Kehoe, Patrick J. & McGrattan, Ellen R., 2008. "Are structural VARs with long-run restrictions useful in developing business cycle theory?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1337-1352, November.
    19. Holly, S. & Petrella, I., 2008. "Factor demand linkages and the business cycle: Interpreting aggregate fluctuations as sectoral fluctuations," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0827, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Ricardo Reis, 2008. "Comment on "In Search of the Transmission Mechanism of Fiscal Policy"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2007, Volume 22, pages 227-236, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    RBC; Technology shocks; Aggregate production function; Entry and exit; Sticky prices; Demand rigidity; Business cycle;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    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:red:issued:09-148. 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: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.html .

    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.