Technology and non-technology shocks in a two-sector economy.

This paper presents an empirically testable two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model for the United States economy that admits technology and non-technology shocks. Long-run identification restrictions further distinguish the impact of each shocks over the originating sector (i.e. as a sector-specific shock), and over other sectors different from the originating one (i.e. as a crosssector shock), also exploring the shocks transmission mechanism across sectors. There are three main results. First, business cycles are mainly generated, in each sector, by technology shocks (primarily described by sector-specific shocks), but they are transmitted across sectors along the sectors’ demand side, i.e. passing through non-technology shocks. Second, technology and nontechnology shocks almost equally share the responsibility of fluctuations in the aggregate manufacturing sector. Third, the aggregate dynamics is driven by the relatively larger sector which is the non-durable good one.