We provide evidence that positive industry-level productivity shocks cause employment to fall in the short run in the UK economy. We use a new UK industry data(over the period 1970-2000), which covers both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries, and identify productivity shocks using...

After a neutral technology shock, hours worked decline in a persistent manner in the UK. This response is robust to a variety of considerations in the recent literature: measures of labour input, level versus differenced hours in the VAR, small and large VARS, long- versus medium- run...

Recent work based on sticky price-wage estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models suggests investment shocks are the most important drivers of post-World War II US business cycles. Consumption, however, typically falls after an investment shock. This finding sits oddly with...

We estimate a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with several frictions and both unanticipated and news shocks, using quarterly US data from 1954-2004 and Bayesian methods. We find that unanticipated shocks dominate news shocks in accounting for the unconditional variance of...

Recent work based on sticky price-wage estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models suggests investment shocks are the most important drivers of post-World War II US business cycles. Consumption, however, typically falls after an investment shock. This finding sits oddly with...

A large body of empirical work has established the significance of cash flow in explain- ing investment dynamics. This finding is further taken as evidence of capital market imperfections. We show, using a perfect capital markets model, that time-to-build for capital projects creates an...

We estimate a two-sector DSGE model with financial intermediaries—a-la Gertler and Karadi 2011) and Gertler and Kiyotaki (2010)—and quantify the importance of financial shocks in accounting for aggregate and sectoral fluctuations. Our results indicate a significant role of financial market...

We estimate a two-sector DSGEmodel with financial intermediaries—a-la Gertler and Karadi (2011) and Gertler and Kiyotaki (2010)—and quantify the importance of news shocks in accounting for aggregate and sectoral fluctuations. Our results indicate a significant role of financial market news...

We study how excessive debt-GDP ratios affect political sustainability of prudent fiscal policy in country members of a monetary union. We develop a model with free choice of distinct rent-seeking groups to cooperate (or not) in providing public goods, in seeking rents, and in austere debt...