Latest documents http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/index/index/ Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:53:50 +0200 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:53:50 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/24080 In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the state of macroeconomicmodeling and the use of macroeconomic models in policy analysis has come under heavy criticism. Macroeconomists in academia and policy institutions have been blamed for relying too much on a particular class of macroeconomic models. This paper proposes a comparative approach to macroeconomic policy analysis that is open to competing modeling paradigms. Macroeconomic model comparison projects have helped produce some very influential insights such as the Taylor rule. However, they have been infrequent and costly, because they require the input of many teams of researchers and multiple meetings to obtain a limited set of comparative findings. This paper provides a new approach that enables individual researchers to conduct model comparisons easily, frequently, at low cost and on a large scale. Using this approach a model archive is built that includes many well-known empirically estimated models that may be used for quantitative analysis of monetary and fiscal stabilization policies. A computational platform is created that allows straightforward comparisons of models’ implications. Its application is illustrated by comparing different monetary and fiscal policies across selected models. Researchers can easily include new models in the data base and compare the effects of novel extensions to established benchmarks thereby fostering a comparative instead of insular approach to model development. Volker Wieland; Tobias Cwik; Gernot J. Müller; Sebastian Schmidt; Maik Hendrik Wolters workingpaper http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/24080 Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:53:50 +0200 http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/20010 In my dissertation I study the transmission of monetary and fiscal policy in New Keynesian DSGE models. In the first chapter we revisit the exchange rate channel in a two-country model of the U.S. and a panel of industrialized countries to analyse how monetary policy transmission in the U.S. changes if it becomes more trade integrated. We find that more openness lowers the sacrifice ratio, although the effect is quantitatively small and depends on the pricing of the firms. In the second chapter we simulate the impact of the U.S. fiscal stimulus package in 2009 on GDP. We find that the government spendingmultiplier is well below 1. The finding is robust to including rule-of-thumb consumers and simulating the stimulus in the recent recession. In the third chapter we collect the fiscal stimulus measures in the eleven biggest countries of the euro area. Then we do a robustness study by simulating the european package in five different models of the euro area. The macroeconomic models vary in terms of backward-looking decision making of the agents and openness. Our findings provide no support for a Keynesian multiplier. Instead they suggest that additional government spending will reduce private spending for consumption and investment purposes. If government spending faces an implementation lag, the initial effect on GDP may even be negative. In the fourth chapter I estimate a DSGE model for Germany and compute forecasts for the debt-to-GDP ratio. I find that the expected economic recovery will lead to a decrease in Germany’s indebtedness in the medium-term given that policy makers stick to the fiscal policy rules. Tobias Cwik doctoralthesis http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/20010 Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:24:02 +0200