How sizable is the wealth effect on consumption in euro area countries? To address this question, we use newly available harmonized euro area wealth data and the methodology in Carroll et al. (2011b). We find that the marginal propensity to consume out of total wealth averaged across the largest...

The authors solve the IS puzzle for the G7 countries. They find that five of the G7 countries have the expected significant negative relationship between the output gap and the real-rate gap; the time series of the remaining two show material deviation from expected IS-curve behavior. The...

This paper examines the business cycle properties of Visegrad group countries. The main objective is to identify business cycles in these countries and to study the relationships between them. The author applies a modification of the Fourier analysis to estimate cycle amplitudes and frequencies....

Some main Norwegian quarterly macroeconomic time series are decomposed into unobserved components within the framework of structural time series models using UCARIMA models. In the most general case we allow for a stationary cyclical component besides a stochastic trend, a stochastic seasonal...

This paper analyses the dynamic effects of aggregate demand, supply and real oil price shocks on real output and unemployment. Oil price shocks are included explicitly in the model, to investigate their role in explaining periods of global recessions. The different structural disturbances are...

This paper analyses the sources of business cycles in economies that have an important energy producing sector. Especially, I investigate the effects of oil and gas extractions (energy booms) on the manufacturing sector, and analyse whether there is any evidence of a "Dutch disease", that is...

In this paper we point out that using a two-state Markov chain to describe change in regime makes it difficult to interpret the model since there is a bias towards frequent shifts. However, by using a finite Markov chain with a transition matrix satisfying certain restrictions it is possible to...

We analyze the importance of global shocks for the global economy and national policy makers. More specifically, we investigate whether monetary policy has become less effective in the wake of financial globalization. We also examine whether there is increasing uncertainty for central banks due...

Business cycle indicators are used to assess the economic situation of countries or regions. They are closely watched by the public, but are not easy to interpret. Does a current movement of the indicator signal a turning point or not? With the help of Markov Switching Models movements of...

Many empirical studies have found that interest rate have a positive effect on the price level. This paper pursues an obvious, but neglected explanation: interest payments are a cost of production that is at least in part passed on to costumers. A model shows that the cost-push effect of...