Anticipated Technological Change and Real Business
Cycles.David
R.F. Love and Jean-François Lamarche
Keywords: Anticipation, Real Business Cycles, Impulse Responses.
JEL: E10, E30, E37.
For example, changes in regulatory environments which are enacted through legislation are clearly anticipated well before they legally come into effect. California's zero-emissions-vehicle mandate is almost 10 years old and yet has two years remaining before automobile manufacturers will be forced to comply. Motorists in southern Ontario had between one and two years to prepare their vehicles for the provincial governments ``drive clean'' inspections. Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane (DDT), leaded-gasoline, and chloro-flouro carbons (CFC's) are just three examples of products that were ``phased-out'' rather than being banned effective immediately. It is clear that this approach is the rule rather than the exception.
In terms of technological innovation, it is rare for the introduction of a new product or process to not be accompanied by a series of announcements and analyses. From colour television and the basics of silicon-chip technology in the late 1960's and early 1970's, to fiber optic cables, high speed internet access, cellular telephones, global positioning satellites, and fuel cells today, it is difficult to find an example of a new technology in which the readers of ``Popular Mechanics'' were not thoroughly versed, and which was not well anticipated by the public at large. Indeed the establishment of anticipation and hype for new ``revolutionary'' products is by now a standard marketing strategy. The timely releases of successive MicroSoft ``Windows'' operating systems and Intel ``Pentium'' chips provide ready examples.
This paper explores some of the implications of fully anticipated technological change for the predictions of real business cycle models.
Anticipation of technological change in our framework means that
economic
agents observe the outcome of a conventional stochastic technology
process
some
periods prior to its impact on productivity. This is a simple variation
on the typical RBC methodology which is easy to handle within our
solution
algorithm for any
,
where
yields the standard unanticipated case. Conceptually then, a ``shock''
refers to the revelation of information about future productivities
rather
than to the impact of the productivity change itself. Note that this
opens
the possibility for negative productivity shocks, which are difficult
to
interpret within standard RBC frameworks, to be understood as downward
reassessments of the future productivity potential of technological
innovations.
There are at least two basic ways in which anticipation as described above may have implications for the predictions of RBC models. First, allowing for agent's responses in anticipation of technological change may alter the model's predictions for the basic variances, and correlations of the economic variables central to most RBC theory. For example, anticipation of a future increase in factor productivity may alter agent's investment decisions. This may impact on measured investment volatility and could serve to reduce the correlation between investment and output. Also, agent's may substitute current leisure for anticipated increases in future consumption. This is the opposite labour-supply response to that seen when the technology actually arrives and thus may serve within the model to increase measured labour volatility.
Our simulation results confirm some of the above intuition. In general, for a given stochastic technology process, anticipation tends to raise the measured volatility of output, and the relative volatility of hours to output and investment to output. Additionally, anticipation effects break down the pattern of near perfect correlation between consumption, hours, and output which characterizes many RBC models.
Second, a period of anticipation prior to the impact of the technological change lengthens the possible response of the economy to any given shock. This has implications for the internal propagation properties of the model. As is well know (for example, Cogley and Nason, 1995) many RBC frameworks fail to generate output persistence or impulse responses that are consistent with actual data. Our simulation results show a dramatic effect of anticipation on estimates of impulse-response functions obtained from the model. In particular, when technological changes are anticipated, we estimate hump-shaped transitory response functions from our simulated data for output levels and hours which are similar to those obtained from US data, and where basically no response at all appears in the unanticipated case. These transitory dynamic responses in the presence of a period of anticipation are intuitive and are robust to several model specifications. In some cases strong autocorrelation of output growth is also predicted when technological changes are anticipated.
Our study is related to the interesting work of Beaudry and Portier (2000) who analyze a model where anticipation of technological change is based upon signals that are sometimes incorrect. Their emphasis, however, is on the potential recessionary effects of having (ex post) an overly optimistic view regarding the future path of technology in a model which differs from common RBC frameworks. Our work complements this by identifying the implications of correctly anticipating technological changes for a broad set of business-cycle predictions in common RBC models.
In the next section of the paper we outline a simple base-case RBC model and briefly discuss our simulation approach. Section 3 presents results from this model including estimation of impulse-response and autocorrelation functions from simulated data. In Section 4 we modify the base-case model assumptions for the stochastic technology process and relate impulse dynamics to the extent of anticipation effects. Section 5 extensively modifies the model to allow for endogenous growth and explores anticipation effects in several variants of that framework. Section 6 concludes.
![]() |
(1) |
is period-t consumption, and
is labour supplied from a unit endowment of time per period.
is the household's subjective rate of time preference. The period
utility
function is isoelastic over consumption and leisure and is
parameterized
as:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
(2) |
![]() |
![]() |
,
denotes the household's time-t information set. If
we have the standard RBC setup where the household has perfect
information
about the state of the economy up to and including the current period,
but future economic conditions are subject to uncertainty. Since this
situation
implies that, for example, variations in technologies are never
realized
in advance of the current decision making period, we refer to this as
the
unanticipated
case. Alternatively, if
,
then the household's information set includes knowledge of the state of
the economy
periods beyond the current decision making period, and we refer to this
as the
-period
anticipated case.
The household's labour supply earns a competitive wage rate, .
Households also save directly in capital which is rented out each
period
for a competitive rate of return
,
and which follows the usual law of motion;
,
where
gives the rate of capital depreciation. The resulting household income
is allocated between consumption goods and capital investments implying
the following time-t budget constraint;
![]() |
(3) |
![]() |
(4) |
where, ,
and
are standard production function coefficients.
is an exogenous productivity factor or ``technology shock'' process
assumed
to follow a random walk with drift such that;
![]() |
(5) |
The N-step forecast of this process conditional on
is given by;
![]() |
(6) |
with conditional variance;
![]() |
(7) |
The parameter
was chosen to set capital's share of total income
equal to 0.35. The scale parameter
was normalized to unity. The depreciation rate
was set at 2.4% per quarter.We set
so that agent's subjective rate of time preference is 5% per year.We
choose
in accordance with the average measure of hours worked from our data.
Since
this measure is of actual hours per week and the model normalizes
available
time to unity we must convert our data measure to percentage terms. Our
normalization assumes 16 discretionary hours available per day (112 per
week) and yields an average data value of 19.2%. This lies between the
17% specified in Jones et al. (2000) and the 24% employed by Gomme
(1993).
Our results are not sensitive within this range of values.
Given selections for
and
,
the choice of
is constrained by three factors. First, our preference specification
implies
an intertemporal elasticity of substitution given by
.
Evidence suggests that this should satisfy
(see,for example, Mehra and Prescott (1985)). Second, within this range
for the
,
too low a value of
results in too high of a capital investment-to-output ratio
which should lie roughly between 0.2 and 0.24. Third, too high a value
of
results in too high a real interest rate (inclusive of an equity
premium
the variance of real-rate estimates is huge but it seems clear that
anything
exceeding 10% would be unreasonable). Thus some compromise is
necessary.
We choose
to give reasonable values for all of these model variables in the
base-case.
In calibrating the stochastic technological process we choose
to generate a quarterly balanced-growth rate of output
of 0.42% corresponding to the growth rate of U.S. GDP per worker in our
sampletypeset@protect @@footnote SF@gobble@opt We divide by the labour
force here rather than population to factor out increases in output
per-capita
due to the significant increases in participation rates over the
sample.
. As in Gomme (1993), and Beaudry and Portier (2000) we choose
so as to closely replicate the variance of output growth per-capita of
0.0095 found in our data sample.
Anticipation raises the variance of output
and of output growth
in the model relative to the unanticipated case, implying that less
exogenous
volatility is required in the model to capture this feature of the
data.
The anticipation assumption reverses the predictions of the model in
regards
to the relative variance of consumption-to-output
,
and investment-to-output
.
Under anticipation
falls by more than one-half so the model now under predicts the data,
and
more than doubles so the model now over predicts the data. Anticipation
more than triples the relative variance of hours-to-output
bringing the model's predictions much closer with a feature of the data
that has proven difficult to match in simple RBC frameworks.
Additionally,
the anticipation effect breaks down the pattern of near perfect
correlations
of consumption with output
,
investment with output
,
and hours with output
that characterizes many RBC models. This is particularly true for
which now significantly under estimates the data. Lastly, while all of
the predictions for the first-order autocorrelation of output
growth
,
and of consumption growth
,
are very close to zero, the small negative values predicted under the
anticipation
assumption indicate a worsening.
Thus, the above results are mixed in terms of which model better fits these aspects of the data. It seems reasonable, however, to argue that the real world is not characterized by either extreme of only anticipated technological changes nor only unanticipated changes. This argument, together with the above results, suggests that anticipation effects are an important consideration in our understanding of business cycle phenomena and that an appropriately generalized model encompassing both possibilities could generate a set of intermediate predictions that are overall more closely in line with the evidence.
Figure 3 shows a
positive
anticipation effect in consumption. Again, this is due to intertemporal
substitution in anticipation of relatively high consumption in the
future.
As seen in Figure 4 it is
accomplished,
despite lower output over the anticipation period, by reductions in the
rate of investment. Since consumption rises during the period of
anticipation
while output falls, a lower correlation between these two variables
results
and, the relatively smooth path of consumption compared to output
implies
a lower ratio of standard deviations, .
As discussed by Beaudry and Portier (2000) the pattern of variable movements outlined above in response to an anticipated increase in technology is an artifact of the standard RBC model structure employed here. While it is tempting to relate the declines in hours, output, and investment with a recession (in the absence of technological regress), the co-movement of consumption with these variables distinctly contradicts the pattern observed in actual recessions. Clearly anticipation effects cannot make a fully comprehensive model of the business cycle out of the standard RBC structure, and it is not our objective here to argue that. However, as we will see further in the next section, anticipation effects in these models are significant and can address some of their other failures.
Impulse response functions are estimated employing the methodology of Blanchard and Quah (1989). Given an estimated bivariate autoregressive process obtained from stationary time-series (here quarterly per-capita output growth and hours), this methodology allows for the decomposition of the two variable's responses to shocks into transitory components, which by construction eventually die out, and permanent ones which need not.
Both in the data and in the simulations we use 187 observations
corresponding
to our sample period of 1954:1 to 2000:3. Estimates reported for the
model
simulations are the average over the number of replications .
In all cases we employ a lag length of 8.
Graphical visualisation of the autocorrelation functions and impulse
response functions is informative but we also report two statistics for
the autocorrelation. The first
due to Gregory and Smith (1991) gives the probability of observing a
first-order
autocorrelation coefficient of output growth in the model that is at
least
as large as that found in the data.
The second
is discussed by Cogley and Nason (1995). The null hypothesis is that
the
simulated autocorrelation function is equal to the sample
autocorrelation
function and thus a low enough
-value
indicates that the model's autocorrelation function is not a good
approximation
to the sample autocorrelation functiontypeset@protect @@footnote
SF@gobble@opt
Further discussion regarding calculation of this statistic is provided
in the Appendix C. .
Figure 6 plots the impulse-response functions for output (GDP) and Hours estimated from the data and again, from the unanticipated, and 4-quarter anticipated simulations of our base-case model. As is well known (see, for example, Blanchard and Quah (1989)) the data for both GDP and hours show significant transitory and permanent responses to a shock. Further, each of these responses is characteristically ``hump-shaped''. These facts have proven difficult to replicate with standard RBC models (Cogley and Nason (1995)) and, as shown in Figure 6, the results for our unanticipated case continue to reflect this. The unanticipated case produces virtually no transitory response in either output or hours with the plotted function estimates lying almost entirely along the horizontal axis. While this case does generate permanent responses to a shock these are relatively small and essentially monotonic rather than hump-shaped as for the data.
The 4-quarter anticipated case, on the other hand, displays marked transitory responses in both output and hours. These estimated responses clearly differ from those obtained with the data, nonetheless they indicate an important trend-reverting component in modelled output and hours. Given these sizable transitory responses in the anticipated case, it is not surprising that the decomposition technique employed estimates smaller corresponding permanent responses than found for the unanticipated case. In favourable contrast to the unanticipated case, however, the permanent response functions for the anticipated case are distinctly hump-shaped as is consistent with the non-monotonic permanent responses estimated from the data.
Finally, note that the anticipated case also generates an initial negative response in the permanent hours function which is consistent with the data. This reflects the initial negative response of hours to anticipated future changes in productivity as seen in Figure 1 above. In general, the transitory responses seen when changes in technology are assumed to be anticipated are a reflection of the anticipation effects previously stylized in Figures 1 to 4, which are by their nature short-lived.
The production function specification in the model is modified to the following;
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(8) |
As before
is a random productivity shock but is now specified astypeset@protect
@@footnote
SF@gobble@opt This specification for the shock process is adopted from
Jones, Manuelli, and Siu (2000). ;
![]() |
(9) |
The N-step forecast of this stochastic process conditional on
is given by,
![]() |
(10) |
with conditional variance of,
![]() |
(11) |
These assumptions imply that
and the model has a well defined BGP. Further, for small
and in the limit as
this model is equivalent to that presented in Section 2
above where we assumed a random walk with drift. Essentially then this
model specification enables us to study the implications of the degree
of persistence in productivity shocks for our results. Also, for
,
productivity shocks are by definition temporary (although potentially
very
long-lived) relative to the exogenous growth path implied by the
evolution
of the scale parameter
.
There are important implications of this for estimated transitory
responses
to shocks in the model where, based upon our earlier results, we may
expect
to see significant effects of anticipation and thus this specification
provides emphasis for this point of comparison.
As should be expected the model results for the
case are almost the same as those for the random walk model presented
in
Section 2 above. As the level of
persistence
in the shock process diminishes, however, it is apparent that the
differences
between the unanticipated results and the anticipated results narrows.
This effect is consistent across every statistic calculated and
continues
until, for the
case, there is virtually no difference between the unanticipated and
anticipated
cases.
The intuition for this result is quite simple. Agent's response in
anticipation
of future productivity changes is larger the longer lasting the effects
of those changes are expected to be. For short-lived changes there is
little
opportunity to benefit from intertemporal substitution of, for example,
labour supply and thus little response in anticipation of the change.
This
can be seen clearly by observing model impulse response functions.
Figure
7
displays, for the
model, the percentage deviations of hours from a deterministic BGP in
both
the unanticipated and 4-quarter anticipated cases given a positive 1/2
percent productivity shock. Compared to Figure 1
from the earlier random walk model, it is clear how both the
anticipation
effect and the length of response subsequent to the shock vary with the
shock persistence. In the
model, the dominant distinguishing feature between the anticipated and
unanticipated cases is the timing of the arrival of the productivity
change,
and it is apparent how these two cases would be virtually
indistinguishable
statistically. Similar results are also apparent in regards to output,
consumption, and investment responses.
The basic intuition above regarding the implications of persistence
for the effects of anticipation in the model extends to the estimated
impulse
response functions. Figure 9
shows
clearly that the estimated response functions in the unanticipated and
anticipated cases are essentially the same when the shocks show no
persistence .
Finally, we do not present estimated autocorrelation functions for these models as there is virtually no change in results. The models all continue to fail miserably in this regard.
We have seen for exogenous growth models that allowing for anticipation of technology change tends to weaken their (admittedly limited) ability to generate positive persistence in growth rates. Also, our work suggests that the effects of anticipation, particularly with respect to estimated impulse response functions, are sensitive to the assumed growth process. Finally, it is intuitive that allowing for the possibility of intersectoral substitution, as well as for intertemporal substitution, in response to an anticipated technological change may be important for our understanding of business cycles. These factors, and the work of Jones et al. (2000) motivate the analysis in this section of the paper of the effects of anticipation in a two-sector endogenous growth framework.
We present here a basic outline of the central remaining features of the model ostensibly for the purposes of establishing notation and a framework for further discussion. Proofs of the existence and uniqueness of competitive equilibrium in this framework, detailed analyses of balanced-growth solutions, and analytical characterizations of the model's transitional dynamic properties are well established elsewhere in the literature. An excellent reference in this regard for readers further interested is Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1996, chpt. 4).
We assume the same utility and information structure for the
representative
household as given in Section 2.1
above. Time available for leisure ,
however, is now subject to the following constraint;
![]() |
(12) |
where total hours available have been normalized to unity.
represents hours supplied for employment in the final-goods sector,
and
is hours employed in human-capital formation.
The household's effective labour supply
earns a competitive wage rate,
.
Households also save directly in physical capital which is rented out
each
period for a competitive rate of return,
.
The resulting household income is allocated between the purchase of
consumption
goods, physical-capital investments, and human-capital
accumulationtypeset@protect
@@footnote SF@gobble@opt The assumption that human-capital is
explicitly
purchased in a market rather than, say being produced by households at
home, is made for simplicity of exposition only. Under constant returns
to scale and perfect competition as assumed here, the results are
invariant
to this choice. implying the following time-t budget constraint;
![]() |
(13) |
Here ,
and
give the rates of depreciation of physical-capital and human-capital
respectively,
and
gives the relative price of human capital in terms of final-goods.
Final-goods production, ,
is undertaken by firms which employ effective labour and rent
proportion
of the capital stock to maximize period-by-period profits. Human
capital
production,
,
employs a symmetric production technology and pays the same wages and
rental
rates as in the final-goods sector. The corresponding production
technologies
are;
![]() |
(14) |
![]() |
(15) |
Here, ,
,
,
and
are standard production function coefficients.
and
are exogenous productivity shocks. For simplicity we will assume that
the
two sectors are subject to identical shocks in each period so that
.
These shocks are assumed to follow the process given by Equations 9
to 11 in Section 4.1
abovetypeset@protect @@footnote SF@gobble@opt Note that, as opposed to
the model of Section 4.1,
the rate of growth here is a function of the scale parameters in the
constant
returns to scale production technologies (i.e.
and
).
In this version of the model therefore, similarly to the random walk
model
of Section 2, shocks will by
definition
have permanent effects. .
The final-goods market-clearing condition is;
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(16) |
Market clearing in human-capital implies;
![]() |
(17) |
Finally, it can be readily shown that the optimal intersectoral allocation of factors implies the following expression for the relative price of human-capital in terms of final-goods output;
![]() |
(18) |
Employing this condition we calculate aggregate economic output from the model as;
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(19) |
In order to isolate the effects of alternative parameter
specifications
and/or approaches to measurement on our results we adopt a
three-pronged
strategy. First we specify a base-case EGM model following a common
practice
in this framework of assuming perfect symmetry between production
sectors
(i.e. identical technologies (
and
),
and depreciation rates (
)).
This amounts to assuming a single-sector model of homogeneous
output
and consumption goods which therefore, relative to the models of
Sections
2
and 4 above, differs essentially
only
in regards to the endogenous versus exogenous growth assumption.
Second, in the perfectly symmetric sectors EGM the critical ratio of
human-to-physical capital is a constant and transitional dynamic
responses
of the capital stocks to changes in economic conditions transpire
within
a single time period. Assuming symmetric effects of technology changes
between sectors ,
this implies no intersectoral shifting of resources in response to any
given productivity shock, and thus rules out this possible avenue for
the
effects of anticipation of shocks. We therefore modify the base-case
EGM
to allow for alternative asymmetries between sectors and examine the
implications.
Third we extend the base-case EGM and the asymmetric-sectors models in an attempt to address some of the measurement issues outlined above.
In each case calibration employs the same stylized facts and basic methodology used for the previous models. The specifics of each of these alternative approaches are discussed below in conjunction with the presentation of corresponding results.
Qualitatively the results here are perfectly analogous to those
found
for the base-case one-sector model studied above. Anticipation raises
the
variance of output
and of output growth
.
falls while
and
increase under anticipation. The anticipation effect continues to break
down the pattern of near perfect correlations of consumption with
output
,
investment with output
,
and hours with output
.
Lastly, anticipation worsens the model's already weak predictions
regarding
the first-order autocorrelations of output growth
,
and of consumption growth
.
Model impulse response functions for this base-case EGM are also
qualitatively
identical to those in Figures 1
to 4 from the one-sector
models
showing the same intuition as was discussed in that case.
Quantitatively, however, these effects are smaller than in the one-sector random walk model and can be seen to diminish with the degree of persistence in the shock process. The base-case EGM clearly shows the same effects of persistence as were seen for the alternative specifications of the one-sector model studied in Section 4 above.
This fact is reiterated in the estimated impulse-response functions
for the model shown in Figure 10
for the
case, and Figure 11
for the
case. As for the one-sector model the base-case EGM shows no transitory
responses of either hours or output, but significant transitory
responses
are estimated in the anticipated case. Correspondingly, permanent
responses
are estimated to be smaller under anticipation. These estimated impulse
response functions are very similar in the
case to those for the base-case one-sector model where shocks followed
a random walk and, in particular, they show a characteristic
hump-shaped
response. This later property is lost, however, as the shock
persistence
declines. A comparison with the
case shows reduced responses on the transitory side under anticipation,
and permanent responses under anticipation which are getting closer to
the of responses seen in the unanticipated case.
These results indicate that endogenizing the growth process in itself has little impact on the nature of the effects of anticipation of productivity shocks for the business cycle predictions of this class of models.
In the first of these alternatives (EGM-B) we reduce the intensity
of
physical-capital utilization in the human-capital sector (smaller )
by a small margin such that the estimated income share of capital in
GDP
(and by construction also the share of labour) continues to satisfy the
calibration requirements. In the second alternative (EGM-C) we reduce
the
rate of depreciation on human capital relative to the rate on physical
capital. In both of these cases we fix
.
The corresponding calibrations for these models are given in Tables 8
and 9 found in Appendix D.
Table 6 presents the
corresponding
RBC statistics estimated from our simulated data. Generally,
anticipation
of technology change continues to have significant effects. Except
where
investment is concerned we once again find the same basic pattern of
results
as for our previous models. In the EGM-B case
is still seen to rise with anticipation, however, in the EGM-C case
there
is a significant fall in this measure relative to the unanticipated
case.
In both the EGM-B and EGM-C cases we also see a dramatic fall, rather
than
only a minor one, in the correlation of investment to output
in the anticipated case relative to the unanticipated case.
These results can be understood by observing the model impulse response functions. For hours, consumption, and output, these transition paths remain qualitatively identical to those shown for the base-case one-sector model in Figures 1 to 3 above. In these asymmetric sector models, however, since the ratio of human-to-physical capital is no longer constant, but varies in transition, the investment paths for human versus physical-capital, rather than being identical, show markedly different behaviours from each other. Figure 12, shows the paths of human and physical-capital investment in the EGM-B model in response to a 1/2 percent positive productivity shock. In the anticipated case physical-capital investment rises in the periods prior to the technological change, and falls significantly on the arrival date (period 4) before rising again subsequent to the technological change taking effect. Human-capital investment follows an opposite pattern. The movements of physical-capital investment at the arrival date are in the opposite direction to those for output on this date, and being relatively large, this accounts for the models low prediction regarding the correlation of output and physical-capital investment.
Figure 13 shows that investment deviations in the EGM-C model follow similar paths, although with generally higher volatility than in the EGM-B case which accounts for the increased relative volatility of investment to output in this model. Also, the timing of investment swings differs. This is a reflection of the asymmetries in depreciation rates between sectors which characterizes this model. In the anticipated case, while physical-capital investment is still high in the period before the arrival date, and human-capital investment is low, there is no overshooting of these rates from their long-run levels on the arrival date itself. The transitional responses of investments are essentially completed before the arrival date. This is contrasted with the unanticipated case, where the need to adjust the ratio of capital stocks in response to the arrival of the technological shock forces adjustment on the arrival date itself and accounts for the reduction in the relative volatility of physical-capital investment to output under anticipation.
Finally, estimated impulse-response and autocorrelation functions for these asymmetric cases show almost no variation in results relative to the symmetric sector model and thus are not presented here. There does arise a very small estimated transitory response for both output and hours in the unanticipated cases which verifies the intuition that allowing for intersectoral reallocations of resources in response to shocks may influence the models output dynamics, however, there are no implications for the relative effects of anticipation.
To account for this we adjust our measures of output and
incomes
earned from the human-capital sector by fraction .
These adjustments have no impact on the actual structure of the model
(aside
from a need for re-calibration) but only affect how our simulated data
series are constructed from the model solutions.
Since some fraction of labour inputs to the human-capital production process are not measured (for example, student hours in school, parental inputs, some portion of time learning-by-doing) we write,
![]() |
(20) |
These adjustments do not address the inclusion of human-capital investments in aggregate consumption data. In our view the least ad-hoc method of dealing with this expenditure side measurement issue would be to subtract from the actual consumption data those components which are readily attributed to human-capital accumulation. To this end we deducted personal consumption expenditures on education and research services, and personal consumption expenditures on medical services from our base consumption series for the U.S. We found no appreciable difference in the statistical properties of this series over the base consumption series (besides the reduction in average percentage of GDP) and thus do not report particular results in this regard.
The modification of our models to account for these measurement
changes
requires alternative calibrations in order to continue to provide
variable
solutions consistent with observation. By assuming that more hours are
actually worked in human-capital accumulation than are measured, total
hours in the model must rise for measured hours to match our
calibration
requirements. The percentage of human-capital output in measured
aggregate
output falls by roughly one half from 40% of measured aggregate output
to 20%, which seems like a more reasonable number. Since
physical-capital
investment is fully measured in the model, but the measure of aggregate
output is now smaller, the
ratio falls unless depreciation rates are lowered.
We refer to these variations of our model as the ``unmeasured'' cases (``Base-Case EGMu'', ``EGMu-B'', ``EGMu-C''). The parameters and balanced-growth variable values for each of these calibrations are given in Tables 10, 11, and 12 found in Appendix D.
In regards to the asymmetric sector cases there are three basic results. First, volatilities of output, and output growth tend to fall with anticipation here rather than rise as we saw in the earlier results. Second, incomplete measurement of the human-capital sector further exacerbates the breakdown in the near perfect correlations between output and consumption, output and investment, and output and hours which results in the anticipated cases. Finally, the ``EGMu-B'' and ``EGMu-C'' cases both show substantial positive autocorrelation of output growth for the case of anticipated technological change. As might be expected then, and as is shown in the next section, these cases also improve significantly on the models predictions for the autocorrelation function of output growth.
Of course the models fail on some dimensions. Estimated autocorrelation functions are consistently rejected by our calculated Q-statistics relative to the sample functions for example. But the central point, that anticipation is important for the predictions of these models remains valid and we see no reason why this should not extend to other alternative frameworks. Intuitively, actual economies are likely characterized by combinations of anticipated and unanticipated change as well as processes of updating expectations of change with the revelation of new information. We see this as a promising avenue for future research in the RBC literature and elsewhere.
Appendix A. Data.
U.S. quarterly data series employed covered the period 1954:1 to 2000:3. Series denoted in italics where obtained from the National Income and Product Accounts data matrix (NIPAQ) downloaded from the EconData web-site at the University of Maryland. Series denoted in noun-style type where obtained from the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED) and where aggregated from monthly to quarterly. Where applicable all series were deflated by the implicit price deflator (d0104), and were divided by the civilian non-institutional population 16 years of age and older (CNP16OV) to obtain per-capita values.
Output figures are gross domestic product (n0101).
Consumption is measured as the sum of, personal consumption expenditure (c0201), Federal government defense expenditures (g0704), Federal government non-defense expenditures (g0715), and State and Local government expenditures (g0728).
Labour income was measured as the sum of, compensation of employees (n1402) and proprietors income with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments (n1409).
Capital income was measured as gross national income (n0928) less labour income.
Capital investment was measured by the sum of, private fixed investment (v0401), Federal government defense investment (g0711), Federal government non-defense investment (g0724), and State and Local government investment (g0735).
Our measure of ``hours worked'' accords closely with the Citibase
``Lhours''
series which was not used as it ends at the last month of 1993. Thus we
constructed;
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|
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where avg.hrs. was given by, average weekly hours of production workers (BLS national employment, hours, and earnings series EEU005 annual figures extrapolated to quarterly) for the period 1954:0 to 1963:4, and by average weekly hours of non-agricultural workers (awhnonag) for the period 1964:1 to 2000:3 (monthly data averaged to quarterly). The later series was employed as the former is seasonally unadjusted after 1964. In any case, all of our results appear robust to this choice. Employment was measured by civilian employment 16 years of age and older (CE16OV), and population was again (CNP16OV).
Finally, the labour force was measured by the civilian labour force 16 years of age and older (CLF16OV).
Appendix B. Numerical Simulation.
At the beginning of any time period t, the economy's initial
conditions
are predetermined by the current value of the state variable .
Also at the beginning of this period we assume that agent's realize the
time
outcome of the stochastic process
,
for some
.
Equivalently, at each point in time we have an assumption of perfect
foresight
for the future period
,
and the future sequence of technology variables is therefore known for
this sub-period. Technology variables for times
are forecast conditional on this information, and according to agents'
knowledge of the evolution of the stochastic process
as given by equations 5 to 7.
gives the possibly infinite length of agents' forecast horizon. A
rational
expectations forecast for the entire future sequence of technology
variables
is thus made and a solution for the economy's optimal transitional
response
in light of this sequence can be calculated by employing standard
methodstypeset@protect
@@footnote SF@gobble@opt We employ a two-point boundary solution method
based on exact specifications of the model's dynamic equations system.
As discussed by Fair and Taylor (1984), this imposes the model's
terminal
conditions improving the efficiency of the solution method. . This
expected
transition path yields observations for the time t choice variables of
the model which determine the time t+1 state variable values. These
state
variables in turn represent the time t+1 initial conditions for the
economy
when a new outcome of the stochastic process
is realized and thus the basis for a solution of the time t+1 expected
transition path is established.
Iteration on the above process Q times yields a Q-period artificial time series for our model economy from which estimates of the moments of the model's variables can be obtained. Following a standard RBC approach (Prescott, 1986), we replicate this entire process R times to generate a large number of such artificial time series and a large sample of estimated moments the averages of which are then compared to real economic data.
In practice we set
for the solution of each transition path. This is adequate to ensure
that
the model converges to its long run balanced growth path with a high
degree
of numerical accuracytypeset@protect @@footnote SF@gobble@opt Lower
values
would be adequate with lower persistence in the stochastic process, and
correspondingly larger values would be appropriate in the case of
greater
persistence. . We set Q=200 but truncate the first observations to
eliminate
any dependence of the simulated series on the
starting values. This yields time-series of equal length to our actual
data sample (187 observations)typeset@protect @@footnote SF@gobble@opt
See Gregory and Smith (1991) for the statistical rational behind
requiring
equal sample sizes. . Finally we perform R=1000 replications for each
model
presented.
Appendix C. ACF Statistic.
is computed as,
This type of statistic can also be computed for the impulse-response
functions if the number of shocks in the model is as large as the order
of the vector autoregression (here, two). In the present paper,
however,
there is only one shock (applied symmetrically to both sectors in the
endogenous
growth model) and hence the
statistics for the impulse-response functions are not available.
Model Parameters. |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
U.S. Data | Unanticipated | 4-qtr Anticipated | |
![]() |
0.0095 | 0.0095 | 0.014 |
![]() |
1.62 | 1.21 | 1.61 |
![]() |
0.63 | 0.76 | 0.37 |
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2.34 | 1.85 | 3.91 |
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0.78 | 0.198 | 0.68 |
![]() |
0.85 | 0.998 | 0.58 |
![]() |
0.91 | 0.996 | 0.96 |
![]() |
0.87 | 0.982 | 0.93 |
![]() |
0.33 | 0.011 | -0.007 |
![]() |
0.16 | 0.03 | -0.003 |
Notation:
gives the standard deviation of variable x.
gives the correlation of variables
and
.
gives the first-order autocorrelation of variable
.
denotes aggregate output, and
its growth rate.
denotes consumption, and
its growth rate.
denotes capital investment, and
total hours.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Data | ![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
Un | An | Un | An | Un | An | ||
![]() |
0.0095 | 0.0093 | 0.013 | 0.0098 | 0.012 | 0.0115 | 0.0116 |
![]() |
1.62 | 1.19 | 1.47 | 1.25 | 1.40 | 0.783 | 0.785 |
![]() |
0.63 | 0.64 | 0.35 | 0.48 | 0.31 | 0.24 | 0.23 |
![]() |
2.34 | 2.29 | 3.77 | 2.88 | 3.62 | 3.66 | 3.69 |
![]() |
0.78 | 0.3 | 0.65 | 0.44 | 0.61 | 0.619 | 0.623 |
![]() |
0.85 | 0.995 | 0.696 | 0.982 | 0.856 | 0.98 | 0.987 |
![]() |
0.91 | 0.995 | 0.972 | 0.99 | 0.987 | 0.999 | 0.999 |
![]() |
0.87 | 0.985 | 0.951 | 0.986 | 0.977 | 0.998 | 0.999 |
![]() |
0.33 | 0.0086 | -0.0087 | -0.012 | -0.023 | -0.491 | -0.492 |
![]() |
0.16 | 0.041 | 0.024 | 0.04 | 0.032 | -0.479 | -0.485 |
Notation:
gives the standard deviation of variable x.
gives the correlation of variables
and
.
gives the first-order autocorrelation of variable
.
denotes aggregate output, and
its growth rate.
denotes consumption, and
its growth rate.
denotes capital investment, and
total hours.
![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Model Parameters. |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
U.S. Data | ![]() |
case | ![]() |
case | |
Un | An | Un | An | ||
![]() |
0.0095 | 0.0107 | 0.012 | 0.0092 | 0.012 |
![]() |
1.62 | 1.36 | 1.44 | 1.17 | 1.39 |
![]() |
0.63 | 0.52 | 0.42 | 0.73 | 0.46 |
![]() |
2.34 | 1.28 | 1.34 | 1.15 | 1.36 |
![]() |
0.78 | 0.398 | 0.49 | 0.22 | 0.53 |
![]() |
0.85 | 0.993 | 0.97 | 0.999 | 0.84 |
![]() |
0.91 | 0.999 | 0.999 | 0.999 | 0.994 |
![]() |
0.87 | 0.992 | 0.986 | 0.992 | 0.92 |
![]() |
0.33 | -0.012 | -0.015 | 0.012 | 0.003 |
![]() |
0.16 | 0.018 | 0.0084 | 0.13 | 0.004 |
Notation:
gives the standard deviation of variable x.
gives the correlation of variables
and
.
gives the first-order autocorrelation of variable
.
denotes aggregate output (equation 19
from the model), and
its growth rate.
denotes final-goods consumption, and
its growth rate.
denotes physical-capital investment, and
total hours
.
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Data | EGM-B | Case | EGM-C | Case | |
Un | An | Un | An | ||
![]() |
0.0095 | 0.0106 | 0.012 | 0.0109 | 0.012 |
![]() |
1.62 | 1.35 | 1.43 | 1.38 | 1.47 |
![]() |
0.63 | 0.52 | 0.42 | 0.49 | 0.40 |
![]() |
2.34 | 1.20 | 1.36 | 3.16 | 2.52 |
![]() |
0.78 | 0.40 | 0.49 | 0.41 | 0.5 |
![]() |
0.85 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 0.99 | 0.97 |
![]() |
0.91 | 0.99 | 0.19 | 0.67 | 0.047 |
![]() |
0.87 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.987 |
![]() |
0.33 | -0.015 | -0.02 | -0.007 | -0.016 |
![]() |
0.16 | 0.014 | -0.01 | 0.017 | 0.0026 |
Notation:
gives the standard deviation of variable x.
gives the correlation of variables
and
.
gives the first-order autocorrelation of variable
.
denotes aggregate output (equation 19
from the model), and
its growth rate.
denotes final-goods consumption, and
its growth rate.
denotes physical-capital investment, and
total hours
.
![]() |
![]() |
Data | Base-Case | EGMu | ``EGMu-B''& case | ``EGMu-C''& case | |||
Un | An | Un | An | Un | An | ||
![]() |
0.0095 | 0.0097 | 0.104 | 0.0093 | 0.005 | 0.0015 | 0.0073 |
![]() |
1.62 | 1.247 | 1.28 | 1.22 | 1.04 | 1.453 | 1.168 |
![]() |
0.63 | 0.496 | 0.41 | 0.51 | 0.51 | 0.42 | 0.44 |
![]() |
2.34 | 1.68 | 1.8 | 1.56 | 3.43 | 3.54 | 3.64 |
![]() |
0.78 | 0.365 | 0.434 | 0.35 | 0.41 | 0.51 | 0.48 |
![]() |
0.85 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 0.99 | 0.92 | 0.942 | 0.91 |
![]() |
0.91 | 0.998 | 0.997 | 0.98 | 0.20 | 0.86 | 0.48 |
![]() |
0.87 | 0.994 | 0.987 | 0.99 | 0.80 | 0.945 | 0.87 |
![]() |
0.33 | -0.017 | -0.02 | 0.003 | 0.73 | -0.29 | 0.47 |
![]() |
0.16 | -0.006 | -0.004 | 0.004 | -0.02 | 0.006 | -0.006 |
Notation:
gives the standard deviation of variable x.
gives the correlation of variables
and
.
gives the first-order autocorrelation of variable
.
denotes aggregate output (equation 20
from the model), and
its growth rate.
denotes final-goods consumption, and
its growth rate.
denotes physical-capital investment, and
total hours
.
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Quarters ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Model Parameters |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Model Parameters |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Appendix D, Continued.
Model Parameters |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Model Parameters |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced-Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Model Parameters |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Balanced Growth Variable Values |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
Nikos
Drakos, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999,
Ross
Moore, Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
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