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Author Archives: Menzie Chinn
The Output Gap: Neoclassical Synthesis, New Classical and New Keynesian
It has been interesting to me how much excited commentary has been elicited by my posts on output gaps. [0],
[1], [2], [3] I had thought the subject fairly uncontroversial, especially my reliance upon the CBO measure, which is calculated in a conventional manner, and is an object well-understood in mainstream macroeconomics (take your pick — from Hall and Papell to Mankiw). However, it’s clear that there is no such agreement in the blogosphere (which can be taken as an indicator of how dispersed beliefs are in that world). In any case, the reaction tells me that one’s belief in what determines potential GDP defines in large part how one thinks about the workings of the economy, and so I thought it useful to discuss alternative measures coming out of current academic work.
First Reading on (part of) Q1 GDP
Here’s a compilation of e-forecasting’s January GDP estimate, Macroeconomic Adviser’s December GDP estimate and forecast for 2009Q1. E-forecasting’s estimate is that January real GDP was declining at an 11.8% at annual rates.
Industrial Production and Manufacturing Output, Compared
One can get an idea of how bad this recession is compared to previous ones at the St. Louis Fed’s Recession Watch. They haven’t They’ve now updated the pictures to account for today’s industrial production release (-1.8% vs. Bloomberg consensus -1.5%)., so I will convey the situation in two graphs. To sum up, industrial production is lower than at the corresponding point in any previous post-War recession. For manufacturing output, the same is true back to the 1973 recession (as far back as this series goes).
Recap: The Stimulus Bill and the Macro Impact
CBO has now released an analysis of spend rates of the final stimulus bill to be signed by the President on Tuesday. While the proportions of expenditures and tax cuts are changed, the time profile is little changed from the original House bill — wherein most of the stimulus takes place in the next 19.5 months.
Japanese GDP contracts 3.3% q/q in 2008Q4
Or, 12.7% on an annualized basis. From Reuters:
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s economy shrank 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the biggest drop since 1974 and further confirmation that the world’s second-biggest economy is in a severe recession as the global economic crisis deepens.
WSJ February Survey of Forecasters
The picture says it all. Based on data from the WSJ:
CBO Assessment of the Stimulus Package
As found here:
The Current Downturn: Labor-leisure tradeoff or technological regress
Some views from an economist who is not “advancing the science”.
Reader Joseph commenting on the stimulus bills brings my attention the Cato ad, wherein several Nobel laureates write against a stimulus plan. Ed Prescott is the Nobel laureate who won for work on growth/macroeconomics, so attention must be paid! I looked a bit for his reasoning, and only found this quote from the East Valley Tribune:
“I don’t know why Obama said all economists agree on [the need for a stimulus bill],” Prescott said. “They don’t. If you go down to the third-tier schools, yes, but they’re not the people advancing the science.”
Estimated Output Gap, post Trade, Inventory Releases
The picture says it all, but here’s the quote from RealTime Economics “Fourth Quarter Looking Worse Every Day”:
Yesterday, wholesale inventory numbers came in smaller than expected, prompting economists to revise down fourth-quarter GDP estimates a bit. But a much bigger adjustment is likely in store thanks to today’s data on trade.
The trade deficit for December was wider than anticipated, and economists estimate it will shave up to 0.9 percentage point off of the fourth-quarter number. “These figures were much worse than BEA assumed in preparing the advance fourth quarter GDP estimate,” said Morgan Stanley economist Ted Wieseman, who now expects fourth quarter GDP to be revised down to a 5.2% decline. That figure was in line with other estimates from J.P. Morgan, Macroeconomic Advisers, IHS Global Insight and RDQ Economics, who all expect the number to be around 5%.