IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedcwp/0906.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A note on sunspots with heterogeneous agents

Author

Abstract

This paper studies sunspot fluctuations in a model with heterogeneous households. We find that wealth inequality reduces the degree of increasing returns needed to produce indeterminacy, while wage inequality increases it. When the model is calibrated to match the joint distribution of hours, income, and wealth, the required degree of increasing returns to scale is still much too high to be supported empirically (although smaller than similar homogeneous agent economies). We also find that the model robustly predicts only one sunspot, despite having 1,262 predetermined state variables.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel R. Carroll & Eric Young, 2009. "A note on sunspots with heterogeneous agents," Working Papers (Old Series) 0906, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0906
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-wp-200906
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-wp-200906
    File Function: Persistent link
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.clevelandfed.org/-/media/project/clevelandfedtenant/clevelandfedsite/publications/working-papers/2009/wp-0906-a-note-on-sunspots-with-heterogeneous-agents-pdf.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26509/frbc-wp-200906?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benhabib Jess & Farmer Roger E. A., 1994. "Indeterminacy and Increasing Returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 19-41, June.
    2. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1992. "Bubbles and constraints on debt accumulation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 245-256.
    3. Nicolas L. Dromel & Patrick A. Pintus, 2008. "Are Progressive Income Taxes Stabilizing?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 10(3), pages 329-349, June.
    4. Daniel R. Carroll, 2013. "The demand for income tax progressivity in the growth model," Working Papers (Old Series) 1106, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    5. Christian Ghiglino & Marielle Olszak-Duquenne, 2005. "On The Impact Of Heterogeneity On Indeterminacy," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(1), pages 171-188, February.
    6. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G., 1995. "Are apparent productive spillovers a figment of specification error?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 165-188, August.
    7. Berthold Herrendorf & Akos Valentinyi & Robert Waldmann, 2000. "Ruling Out Multiplicity and Indeterminacy: The Role of Heterogeneity," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(2), pages 295-307.
    8. Schmitt-Grohe, Stephanie & Uribe, Martin, 1997. "Balanced-Budget Rules, Distortionary Taxes, and Aggregate Instability," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 976-1000, October.
    9. Perli, Roberto, 1998. "Indeterminacy, home production, and the business cycle: A calibrated analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 105-125, February.
    10. Martin Floden & Jesper Lindé, 2001. "Idiosyncratic Risk in the United States and Sweden: Is There a Role for Government Insurance?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(2), pages 406-437, July.
    11. Jess Benhabib & Kazuo Nishimura, 2012. "Indeterminacy and Sunspots with Constant Returns," Springer Books, in: John Stachurski & Alain Venditti & Makoto Yano (ed.), Nonlinear Dynamics in Equilibrium Models, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 311-346, Springer.
    12. Gouveia, Miguel & Strauss, Robert P., 1994. "Effective Federal Individual Tax Functions: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(2), pages 317-339, June.
    13. Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei, 2004. "Indivisible-labor, lotteries and idiosyncratic productivity shocks," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 23-35, July.
    14. Jaimovich, Nir, 2008. "Income effects and indeterminacy in a calibrated one-sector growth model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 610-623, November.
    15. Javier Diaz-Gimenez & Vincenzo Quadrini & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull & Santiago Budria Rodriguez, 2002. "Updated facts on the U.S. distributions of earnings, income, and wealth," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 26(Sum), pages 2-35.
    16. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 1995. "Capital Utilization and Returns to Scale," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 67-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Gouveia, Miguel & Strauss, Robert P., 1994. "Effective Federal Individual Tax Functions: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 47(2), pages 317-39, June.
    18. Benhabib, Jess & Farmer, Roger E. A., 1996. "Indeterminacy and sector-specific externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 421-443, June.
    19. Kiminori Matsuyama, 1991. "Increasing Returns, Industrialization, and Indeterminacy of Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 617-650.
    20. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1996. "Consumption, commitment, and cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 461-474, June.
    21. Nicolas Dromel & Patrick-Antoine Pintus, 2006. "Are Progressive Fiscal Rules Stabilizing?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00410452, HAL.
    22. Rogerson, Richard, 1988. "Indivisible labor, lotteries and equilibrium," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 3-16, January.
    23. Peter Diamond (ed.), 1990. "Growth / Productivity / Unemployment," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262041103, December.
    24. 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.
    25. Wen, Yi, 1998. "Capacity Utilization under Increasing Returns to Scale," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 7-36, July.
    26. Tarek Coury & Yi Wen, 2007. "Global indeterminacy in locally determinate RBC models," Working Papers 2007-029, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    27. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 2002. "Fiscal Policy, Increasing Returns, And Endogenous Fluctuations," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(5), pages 633-664, November.
    28. Bartelsman, Eric J., 1995. "Of empty boxes: Returns to scale revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 59-67, July.
    29. Daniel R. Carroll & Eric R. Young, 2009. "The Stationary Distribution of Wealth under Progressive Taxation," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(3), pages 469-478, July.
    30. Liam Graham & Stephen Wright, 2007. "Information, heterogeneity and market incompleteness in the stochastic growth model," CDMA Conference Paper Series 0704, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis.
    31. Bartelsman, Eric J & Caballero, Ricardo J & Lyons, Richard K, 1994. "Customer- and Supplier-Driven Externalities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 1075-1084, September.
    32. Robert E. Hall, 1991. "Labor Demand, Labor Supply, and Employment Volatility," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1991, Volume 6, pages 17-62, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Guo, Jang-Ting & Lansing, Kevin J., 2002. "Fiscal Policy, Increasing Returns, And Endogenous Fluctuations," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(5), pages 633-664, November.
    4. Tarek Coury & Yi Wen, 2007. "Global indeterminacy in locally determinate RBC models," Working Papers 2007-029, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    5. Tarek Coury & Yi Wen, 2009. "Global indeterminacy in locally determinate real business cycle models," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 5(1), pages 49-60, March.
    6. Harrison, Sharon G. & Weder, Mark, 2002. "Tracing externalities as sources of indeterminacy," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 851-867, May.
    7. 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.
    8. Perli, Roberto, 1998. "Indeterminacy, home production, and the business cycle: A calibrated analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 105-125, February.
    9. Harrison, Sharon G., 2001. "Indeterminacy in a model with sector-specific externalities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 747-764, May.
    10. Frédéric Dufourt & Kazuo Nishimura & Alain Venditti, 2013. "Indeterminacy and Sunspot Fluctuations in Two-Sector RBC models: Theory and Calibration," AMSE Working Papers 1315, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised Nov 2009.
    11. Busato, Francesco & Marchetti, Enrico, 2010. "Endogenous skill cycles," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 175-185, September.
    12. Berthold Herrendorf & Akos Valentinyi, 2002. "Neoclassical Growth Model with Externalities," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 0203, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    13. Nigar Hashimzade & Salvador Ortigueira, 2004. "Endogenous Business Cycle with Search in the Labour Market," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2004 78, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    14. Susanto Basu & John Fernald, 2001. "Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 225-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Frédéric Dufourt & Kazuo Nishimura & Alain Venditti, 2022. "Expectations, self-fulfilling prophecies and the business cycle," Working Papers hal-03923946, HAL.
    16. Christiano, Lawrence J. & G. Harrison, Sharon, 1999. "Chaos, sunspots and automatic stabilizers," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 3-31, August.
    17. Luís Francisco Aguiar-Conraria & Yi Wen, 2004. "Foreign Trade and Equilibrium Indeterminacy," NIPE Working Papers 5/2004, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    18. Perez, Rafaela & Ruiz, Jesus, 2007. "Global and local indeterminacy and optimal environmental public policies in an economy with public abatement activities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 431-452, May.
    19. Wen, Yi, 2001. "Understanding self-fulfilling rational expectations equilibria in real business cycle models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1221-1240, August.
    20. Matthias Kehrig, 2011. "The Cyclicality of Productivity Dispersion," 2011 Meeting Papers 484, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wealth; Wages;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fip:fedcwp:0906. 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: 4D Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbclus.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.