Optimality of the Friedman rule in economies with distorting taxes

We find conditions for the Friedman rule to be optimal in three standard models of money. These conditions are homotheticity and separability assumptions on preferences similar to those in the public finance literature on optimal uniform commodity taxation. We show that there is no connection between our results and the result in the standard public finance literature that intermediate goods should not be taxed

Identification of monetary policy in SVAR models: A data-oriented perspective

In the literature using short-run timing restrictions to identify monetary policy shocks in vector-auto-regressions (VAR) there is a debate on whether (i) contemporaneous real activity and prices or (ii) only data typically observed with high frequency should be assumed to be in the information set of the central bank when the interest rate decision is taken. This paper applies graphical modeling theory, a data-based tool, in a small-scale VAR of the US economy to shed light on this issue. Results corroborate the second type of assumption

Evaluation of a DSGE Model of Energy in the United Kingdom Using Stationary Data

I examine the impact of energy price shock (oil prices shock and gas prices shock) on the economic activities in the United Kingdom using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model with a New Keynesian Philips Curve. I decomposed the changes in output caused by all of the stationary structural shocks. I found that the fall in output during the financial crisis period is driven by domestic demand shock, energy prices shock and world demand shock. I found the energy prices shock’s contribution to fall in output is temporary. Such that, the UK can borrow against such a temporary fall. This estimated model can create additional input to the policymaker’s choice of models

What Causes Banking Crises? An Empirical Investigation for the World Economy

We add the Bernanke-Gertler-Gilchrist model to a world model consisting of the US, the Euro-zone and the Rest of the World in order to explore the causes of the banking crisis. We test the model against linear-detrended data and reestimate it by indirect inference; the resulting model passes the Wald test only on outputs in the two countries. We then extract the model's implied residuals on unfiltered data to replicate how the model predicts the crisis. Banking shocks worsen the crisis but 'traditional' shocks explain the bulk of the crisis; the non-stationarity of the productivity shocks plays a key role. Crises occur when there is a 'run' of bad shocks; based on this sample Great Recessions occur on average once every quarter century. Financial shocks on their own, even when extreme, do not cause crises - provided the government acts swiftly to counteract such a shock as happened in this sample