Nathan S. Balke

The Estimation of Prewar Gross National Product: Methodology and New Evidence

The paper develops new methodology for the estimation of prewar GNP, taps previously unused data sources, and develops new estimates for the periods 1869-1908 and 1869-1928. Primary among the new data sources are direct measures of output in the transportation, communications, and construction sectors and estimates of the consumer price index. New measures of real GNP, nominal GNP, and the GNP deflator are developed. The new estimates of real GNP are as volatile on average over the business cycle as the traditional Kuznets-Kendrick series but dampen the amplitude of some cycles while raising the amplitude of others. The new estimates of the GNP deflator are distinctly less volatile than the traditional series and in fact no more volatile than those in the postwar period.

Shifting trends, segmented trends, and infrequent permanent shocks

Abstract A stochastic trend model is considered in which permanent shocks occur infrequently and randomly. We show that this model is observationally equivalent to shifting/segmented deterministic trend models. Moreover, we show that standard, full-sample time series methods are incapable of distinguishing between small, frequent permanent shocks and large, infrequent permanent shocks. An outlier search, however, reveals substantial evidence of large, infrequent shocks to the GNP deflator and that these shocks account for most of the persistence in the GNP deflator. For real GNP, evidence of infrequent permanent shocks is weaker.

Detecting Level Shifts in Time Series

This article demonstrates the difficulty that traditional outlier detection methods, such as that of Tsay, have in identifying level shifts in time series. Initializing the outlier/level-shift search with an estimated autoregressive moving average model lowers the power of the level-shift detection statistics. Furthermore, the rule employed by these methods for distinguishing between level shifts and innovation outliers does not work well in the presence of level shifts. A simple modification to Tsays procedure is proposed that improves the ability to correctly identify level shifts. This modification is relatively easy to implement and appears to be quite effective in practice.

Nonlinear dynamics and covered interest rate parity

This paper examines the dynamics of deviations from covered interest parity using daily data on the UK/US spot, forward exchange rates and interest rates over the period January 1974 to September 1993. Like other studies we find a substantial number of instances during the sample in which the covered interest parity condition exceeds the transaction costs band, implying arbitrage profit opportunities. While most of these implied profit opportunities are relatively small, there is also evidence of some very large deviations from covered interest parity in the sample. In order to examine the persistence of these deviations, we estimated a threshold autoregression in which the dynamics behavior of deviations from covered interest parity is different outside the transaction costs band than inside them. We find that while the impulse response functions when inside the transaction costs band are nearly symmetric, those for the outside the bands are asymmetric-suggesting less persistence outside of the transaction costs band than inside the band.

Low-Frequency Movements in Stock Prices: A State-Space Decomposition

Previous analyses have concluded that expectations of future excess stock returns rather than future real dividend growth or real interest rates are responsible for most of the volatility in stock prices. In this paper, we employ a state-space model to model the dynamics of the log price-dividend ratio along with long-term and short-term interest rates, real dividend growth, and inflation. The advantage of the state-space approach is that we can parsimoniously model the low-frequency movements present in the data. We find that, if one allows permanent changes, even though very small, in real dividend growth, real interest rates, and inflation-but not excess stock returns-then expectations of real dividend growth and real interest rates become significant contributors to fluctuations in stock prices. However, we also show that stock price decompositions are very sensitive to assumptions about which unobserved market fundamentals have a permanent component. When we allow excess stock returns to have a permanent component but not real dividend growth, excess stock returns become an important contributor to stock price movements, whereas real dividend growth does not. Unfortunately, the data is not particularly informative about which of these alternative models is more likely.

An Equilibrium Analysis Of Relative Price Changes And Aggregate Inflation

Inflation is positively correlated with the variability of relative prices as measured by the standard deviation of the cross-section distribution of prices, and also with the third moment (skewness) of the cross-section distribution of prices. The conventional interpretation of these relationships is that they reflect sluggishness in the adjustment of individual prices in response to shocks. In this paper we question this interpretation. First, we show that similar correlations among the moments exist in alternative measures of underlying technology shocks. Second, when these shocks are fed into a general equilibrium model with multiple sectors and flexible prices, the resulting prices also display a positive correlation between aggregate inflation and skewness of the cross-section distribution. Keyword(s): Relative prices; Inflation; Cross-section distribution of prices

The Rational Timing of Parliamentary Elections

This paper presents a rational choice model for the timing of parliamentary elections in political systems where the government has the option of calling an early election. The optimal timing of elections involves the government weighing the benefits of calling an election versus the costs and is modelled mathematically as an optimal stopping problem. The model implies that the timing of elections depends upon time left in the governments term, the degree of electoral uncertainty, the volatility of government popularity, the governments time rate of discount, and institutional constraints such as the length of term and whether the government is likely to be forced from power by a vote of no confidence.

Are deep recessions followed by strong recoveries

We examine the hypothesis that deep recessions are followed by strong recoveries using a monthly data set for industrial production covering the period 1884-1990. There is a statistically significant relationship between growth in the first twelve months of a recovery and the peak-to-trough decline in industrial activity. This effect is still found when we exclude the Great Depression from our sample. We find no evidence that the length of the recession affects the strength of the subsequent recovery.

What Drives Stock Prices? Identifying the Determinants of Stock Price Movements

In this paper, we show that the data have difficulty distinguishing a stock price decomposition in which expectations of future real dividend growth is a primary determinant of stock price movements from one in which expectations of future excess returns are a primary determinant. The data cannot distinguish between these very different decompositions because movements in the price–dividend ratio are very persistent whereas neither real dividend growth nor excess returns are; most of the information about low-frequency movements in dividend growth and excess returns is contained in stock prices and not the series themselves. We further show that this inability to identify the source of stock price movements is not solely due to poor power and size properties of our statistical procedure, nor does it appear to be due to the presence of a rational bubble.

Are deep recessions followed by strong recoveries? Results for the G-7 countries

The hypothesis is examined that the severity of a recession favourably affects the rate of growth of output during the period immediately after the recession. Our empirical analysis is based on the behaviour of industrial output in the G-7 countries during the period 1960 to 1985. The depth of a recession, defined as the cumulative output loss between the peak and trough dates, is shown to be negatively correlated with growth in the first 12 months of the subsequent expansion.