Across the world, a structural growth slowdown is underway: at current trends, the global potential growth rate - the maximum rate at which an economy can grow without igniting inflation - is expected to fall to a three-decade low over the remainder of the 2020s. The slowdown could be even more...

In this paper, I analyze the causes of the prolonged slowdown of the Japanese economy in the 1990s and find that the stagnation of investment, especially private fixed investment, was the primary culprit. I then investigate the causes of the stagnation of household consumption during the 1990s...

Das ifo Instiut hat ein neues Handbuch der umfragebasierten Konjunkturforschung erstellt. Das Handbuch gibt einen Überblick über die regelmäßigen Befragungsaktivitäten des Instituts und zeigt Möglichkeiten der wissenschaftlichen Verwertung der Befragungsergebnisse im Rahmen der...

Das ifo Instiut hat ein neues Handbuch der umfragebasierten Konjunkturforschung erstellt. Das Handbuch gibt einen Überblick über die regelmäßigen Befragungsaktivitäten des Instituts und zeigt Möglichkeiten der wissenschaftlichen Verwertung der Befragungsergebnisse im Rahmen der...

In diesem Papier werden eine Reihe von Frühindikatoren für die Entwicklung der Ausrüstungs-, Wirtschaftsbau- und Wohnungsbauinvestitionen in Deutschland untersucht. Die Indikatoren werden auf Basis theoretischer Erwägungen oder wegen ihres technischen Zusammenhangs zur Investitionstätigkeit...

This paper examines Papua New Guinea's economic growth record within a simple growth ccounting framework. The analysis shows that reductions in growth are mostly accounted for by a significant slowdown in capital inputs and lower total factor productivity growth. On average, no productivity...

In this paper we examine the behavioral responses of key macroeconomic variables in Canada to exogenous innovations to investment specific technology. This is done by developing a stylized international real business cycle model which is simulated to explore its ability to shed new light on the...

Is time-varying firm-level uncertainty a major cause or amplifier of the business cycle? This paper investigates this question in the context of a heterogeneousfirm RBC model with persistent firm-level productivity shocks and lumpy capital adjustment, where cyclical changes in uncertainty...

Using a unique German firm-level data set, this paper is the first to jointly study the cyclical properties of the cross-sections of firm-level real value added and Solow residual innovations, as well as capital and employment adjustment. We find two new business cycle facts: 1) The...

When investment is irreversible, theory suggests that firms will be "reluctant to invest." This reluctance creates a wedge between the discount rate guiding investment decisions and the standard Jorgensonian user cost (adjusted for risk). We use the intertemporal tradeoff between the benefits...