Working papers results
This paper studies a theoretical model where individuals respond
to incentives but are also influenced by norms of good conduct inherited
from earlier generations. Parents rationally choose what values to
transmit to their offspring, and this choice is influenced by the quality
of external enforcement and the pattern of likely future transactions.
The equilibrium displays strategic complementarities between values
and current behavior, which reinforce the effects of changes in the
external environment. Values evolve gradually over time, and if the
quality of external enforcement is chosen under majority rule, there is
histeresis: adverse initial conditions may lead to a unique equilibrium
path where external enforcement remains weak and individual values
discourage cooperation.
This paper reconsiders the developments of model evaluation in macroeconometrics over the last forty years. Our analysis starts from the failure of early empirical macroeconomic models caused by stagflation in the seventies. The different diagnosis of this failure are then analyzed to classify them in two groups: explanations related to problems in the theoretical models that lead to problems in the identification of the relevant econometric model and explanations related to problems in the underlying statistical model that lead to misspecification of the relevant econometric model. Developments in macroeconometric model evaluation after the failure of the Cowles foundation models are then discussed to illustrate how the different critiques have initiated different approaches in macroeconometrics. The evolution of what has been considered the consensus approach to macroeconometric model evaluation over the last thirty years is then followed. The criticism moved to Cowles foundation models in the early seventies might apply almost exactly to DSGE-VAR model evaluation in the first decade of
the new millenium. However, the combination of general statistical model, such as a Factor Augmented VAR, with a DSGE model seems to produce forecasts that perform better than those based exclusively on the theoretical and on the statistical model.
of Uganda began to publish newspaper ads on the timing and amount of funds
disbursed to the districts. The intent of the campaign was to boost schools' and
parents' ability to monitor the local officials in charge of disbursing funds to the
schools. The mass information campaign was successful. But since newspaper
penetration varies greatly across districts, the exposure to information about the
program, and thus funding, dier across districts. I use this variation in program
exposure between districts to evaluate whether public funds have an effect on
student performance. The results show that money matters: On average, stu-
dents in districts highly exposed to the information campaign, and hence to the
grant program, scored 0.40 standard deviations better in the Primary Leaving
Exam (PLE) than students in districts less exposed to information. The results
are robust to controlling for a broad range of confounding factors.
sidered attractive by the profession not only from the theoretical perspec-
tive but also from an empirical standpoint. As a consequence of this
development, methods for diagnosing the fit of these models are being
proposed and implemented. In this article we illustrate how the concept
of statistical identification, that was introduced and used by Spanos(1990)
to criticize traditional evaluation methods of Cowles Commission models,
could be relevant for DSGE models. We conclude that the recently pro-
posed model evaluation method, based on the DSGE - VAR(λ), might not satisfy
the condition for statistical identification. However, our appli-
cation also shows that the adoption of a FAVAR as a statistically identified
benchmark leaves unaltered the support of the data for the DSGE model
and that a DSGE-FAVAR can be an optimal forecasting model.
bonds in the Euro area. There is a common trend in yield differentials, which
is correlated with a measure of aggregate risk. In contrast, liquidity differentials
display sizeable heterogeneity and no common factor. We propose a simple model
with endogenous liquidity demand, where a bond's liquidity premium depends both
on its transaction cost and on investment opportunities. The model predicts that
yield differentials should increase in both liquidity and risk, with an interaction
term of the opposite sign. Testing these predictions on daily data, we find that
the aggregate risk factor is consistently priced, liquidity differentials are priced for
a subset of countries, and their interaction with the risk factor is in line with the
model's prediction and crucial to detect their effect.
We estimate the effect of political regime transitions on growth with semi-parametric methods, combining difference in differences with
matching, that have not been used in macroeconomic settings. Our semi-parametric estimates suggest that previous parametric estimates
may have seriously underestimated the growth effects of democracy. In particular, we find an average negative effect on growth of leav-
ing democracy on the order of -2 percentage points implying effects on income per capita as large as 45 percent over the 1960-2000 panel.
Heterogenous characteristics of reforming and non-reforming countries appear to play an important role in driving these results.
nology is biased in favor of a country's abundant production factors. We provide an expla-
nation to this finding based on the Heckscher-Ohlin model. Countries trade and specialize
in the industries that use intensively the production factors they are abundantly endowed
with. For given factor endowment ratios, this implies smaller international differences in
factor price ratios than under autarky. Thus, when measuring the factor bias of technol-
ogy with the same aggregate production function for all countries, they appear to have
an abundant-factor bias in their technologies.
factor techniques, to produce composite coincident indices (CCIs) at the sectoral
level for the European countries and for Europe as a whole. Few CCIs are available
for Europe compared to the US, and most of them use macroeconomic variables and
focus on aggregate activity. However, there are often delays in the release of macroeconomic
data, later revisions, and differences in the definition of the variables across
countries, while the surveys are timely available, not subject to revision, and fully comparable
across countries. Moreover, there are substantial discrepancies in activity at
the sectoral level, which justifies the interest in a sectoral disaggregation. Compared
to the Confidence Indicators produced by the European Commission, which are based
on a simple average of the aggregate survey answers, we show that factor based CCIs,
using survey answers at a more disaggregate level, produce higher correlation with the
reference series for the majority of sectors and countries.
but also for the decisions of private agents, consumers and firms. Since it is difficult
to identify a single variable that provides a good measure of current economic
conditions, it can be preferable to consider a combination of several coincident indicators,
i.e., a composite coincident index (CCI). In this paper, we review the main
statistical techniques for the construction of CCIs, propose a new pooling-based
method, and apply the alternative techniques for constructing CCIs for the largest
European countries in the euro area and for the euro area as a whole. We find that
different statistical techniques yield comparable CCIs, so that it is possible to reach
a consensus on the status of the economy.