Search Results
Showing results 1 to 2 of approximately 2.
(refine search)
Discussion Paper
Measuring the cyclical behavior of home production: a macroeconomic analysis
Much economic activity takes place within the home. Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess the cyclical properties of home production because the available data are too sporadic. Under the assumption that each observation of historical U.S. data on consumption, investment, and hours worked is consistent with optimal behavior on the part of a representative agent, we construct quarterly data on three variables that would otherwise be unobservable at a quarterly frequency: hours worked in the home sector, hours spent in leisure, and the consumption of goods produced in the home sector. Three ...
Working Paper
Post econometric policy evaluation: a critique
An increasingly popular approach to policy evaluation involves applying the parameters calibrated for a real business cycle model that does not include policy to a different model, where policy does affect private decisions. This technique, in effect, estimates a model that misspecifies how private behavior depends on policy. The calibrated parameters depend on policy behavior, but calibrators overlook this dependence when projecting policy effects. This procedure repeats the "Keynesian" errors that Lucas (1976) noted in his influential critique of (then) standard methods of econometric ...