Profitability, Employment and Structural Adjustment in France

In this paper, we present a dynamic model which explains output, enployment and energy consumption in the French manufacturing sector in terms of the expectedand actual path of wage rates and energy prices in units of output. The modelhas two distinguishing features: First, the rate of capacity utilization isdetermined explicitly from profit-maximizing behavior and it is viewed as the crucial adjusting variable in the short run. Second, we assume complete lack of substitutability between capital, labor and energy inputs ex post.The model is motivated by a brief discussion of French growth, focusing on the decline of profitability and employment in manufacturing, and simulated using annual data from 1950 to 1979. The wage explosion and the energy shock of the early seventies are interpreted (in a model allowing for overhead labor) in terms of changes in expected real factor prices,and their effects on the utilizationand the profitability of each vintage are quantified. Aggregating over vintages,the model generates the observed decline in profitability and utilization of existing capacity. The results of the simulation are very encouraging, and a simultaneous estimation of the model under static expectations is rejected by the data. There are two limitations of the analysis which will be relaxed in further work. Investment is exogenous and open-economy aspects only appear indirectly, say via constraints on the energy price and the price of output.

The 1990 oil price hike in perspective

Petroleum industry and trade ; Power resources - Prices

Supply Shocks, Wage Indexation and Monetary Accommodation

This paper develops a unified framework for the analysis of wage indexation and monetary policy in the presence of supply shocks. We first present simple formulae for the optimal wage indexation rule and for the optimal money supply rule. In order to set the stage for an evaluation of departures from the optimal policy rules we first analyse two extreme cases -- a rule that stabilizes employment and a rule that stabilizes the real wage. The analysis of these two extreme cases provides the ingredients for the evaluation of various rules for wage indexation and for monetary targeting. We examine the implications of indexing wages to (i) nominal GNP, (ii) the CPI and (iii) the value-added price index, as well as the implications of targeting the money supply to these alternative three indicators. It is shown that, the various indexation rules bear a dual relation to the various monetary targeting rules. The welfare ranking of the various rules depends on whether the elasticity of the demand for labor exceeds or falls short of the elasticity of labor supply. If the demand for labor is more elastic than the supply, then policy rules that stabilize employment produce a smaller welfare cost than policy rules that stabilize the real wage. In that case, indexing wages to nominal GNP results in a smaller welfare cost than indexing to value-added price index which, in turn, produces a smaller cost than indexation to the CPI. Because of the dual relation between monetary policy and wage indexation, it follows that under the same circumstances, monetary policy that targets nominal GNP produces a smaller welfare cost than policy that targets the value-added price index which, in turn, results in a smaller cost than the policy that targets the CPI. This ranking is reversed when the elasticity of the supply of labor exceeds the elasticity of demand.

Oil price shocks: A comparative study on the impacts of oil price movements in Malaysia and the UK economies

The study investigates the relationship between changes in crude oil prices and Malaysia and the UK macro-economy. A multivariate VAR analysis is carried out among five key macroeconomic variables: real gross domestic product, short term interest rate, real effective exchange rates, long term interest rate and money supply. From the VAR model, the impulse response functions reveal that oil price movements cause significant reduction in aggregate output and increase real exchange rate. The variance decomposition shows that crude oil prices significantly contribute to the variability of real exchange rate long term interest rate in the Malaysia economy while oil price shocks are found to have significant effects on money supply and short term interest rate in the UK economy. Despite these macro-econometric results, caution must be exercised in formulating energy policies since future effects of upcoming oil shocks will not be the same as what happened in the past. Explorations and development of practicable alternatives to imported fuel energy will cushion the economy from the repercussions of oil shocks

The Finnish Great Depression: From Russia with Love

During the period 1991-93, Finland experienced the deepest economic downturn in an industrialized country since the 1930s. We argue that the culprit behind this Great Depression was the collapse of Finnish trade with the Soviet Union, because it induced a costly restructuring of the manufacturing sector and a sudden, large increase in the cost of energy. We develop and calibrate a multi-sector dynamic general equilibrium model with labor market frictions, and show that the collapse of Soviet-Finnish trade can explain key features of Finland's Great Depression. We also show that Finland's Great Depression mirrors the macroeconomic dynamics of the transition economies of Eastern Europe. These economies experienced a similar trade collapse. However, as a western democracy with developed capital markets and institutions, Finland faced none of the large institutional adjustments that other transition economies experienced. Thus, by studying the Finnish experience we isolate the adjustment costs due solely to the collapse of Soviet trade.business cycles, depression, trade, Soviet, reallocation, multi-sector model

The employment effects of Food Harvest 2020 in Ireland

peer-reviewedThis paper examines the job creation potential of the four main sectoral growth targets in the Food Harvest 2020 (FH2020) development plan for Irish agriculture, namely the growth targets for milk, beef, sheep and pigs. As well as the direct employment that would be created from an increase in activity in the agriculture sector, there would be a knock-on benefit for the rest of the economy arising out of the linkages between agriculture and other economic sectors, as well as the spending of those additionally employed on goods and services produced in the economy. Commonly this is described as the multiplier impact. Two scenarios are simulated using different assumptions to assess how employment will respond to increased output. The first scenario shows the effects of the four shocks calculated using average or direct employment coefficients. The second scenario calculates the effects using marginal employment coefficients estimated using an econometric model of the output-employment relationship. Our results are sensitive to the choice of coefficients used to simulate the employment potential of the FH2020 targets. Based on our preferred scenario using marginal employment coefficients, we estimate that achieving the FH2020 targets will create at least an additional 16,500 jobs in the Irish economy

Understanding the Impact of Oil Shocks

This paper provides new empirical evidence on and theoretical support for the close link between oil prices and aggregate macroeconomic performance in the 1970s. Although this link has been well documented in the empirical literature and is further confirmed in this paper, standard economic models are not able to replicate this link when actual oil prices are used to simulate the models. In particular, standard models cannot explain the depth of the recession in 1974-75 and the strong revival in 1976-78 based on the oil price movements in that period. This paper argues that a missing multiplier-accelerator mechanism from standard models may hold the key. This multiplier-accelerator mechanism not only exacerbated the impact of the oil shocks in 1973-74 but also helped create the temporary recovery in 1976-78. This paper derives the missing multiplier-accelerator mechanism from externalities in general equilibrium. Our calibrated model can explain both the recession in 1974-75 and the revival in 1976-78.

The macroeconomic effects of the recent fall in oil

Power resources - Prices ; Petroleum industry and trade

Commodity Price Shocks and the Business Cycle: Structural Evidence for the U.S.

This paper develops a 9-dimensional SVAR to investigate the sources of the U.S. business cycle. We extend the standard set of identified shocks to include unexpected changes in commodity prices. Our main result is that commodity price shocks are a very important driving force of macroeconomic fluctuations, second only to investment-specific technology shocks. In particular, we find that commodity price shocks explain a large share of cyclical movements in inflation. Neutral technology shocks and monetary policy shocks seem less relevant at business cycle frequencies. The impulse response dynamics provide support for medium-scale DSGE models, but not for strong price rigidities.business cycles, commodity price shocks, structural VAR

Commodity Price Shocks and the Business Cycle: Structural Evidence for the U.S.

This paper develops a 9-dimensional SVAR to investigate the sources of the U.S. business cycle. We extend the standard set of identified shocks to include unexpected changes in commodity prices. Our main result is that commodity price shocks are a very important driving force of macroeconomic fluctuations, second only to investment-specific technology shocks. In particular, we find that commodity price shocks explain a large share of cyclical movements in inflation. Neutral technology shocks and monetary policy shocks seem less relevant at business cycle frequencies. The impulse response dynamics provide support for medium-scale DSGE models, but not for strong price rigidities.business cycles, commodity price shocks, structural VAR