Browsing by Person "Spahn, Heinz-Peter"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Heterogeneous labour, the unemployment equilibrium, and the natural rate
(1998) Spahn, Heinz-Peter
-
Realzins, intertemporale Preise und makroökonomische Stabilisierung : ein Streifzug durch die Theoriegeschichte
(2007) Spahn, Heinz-Peter
The notion of a "real rate of interest" has been a centre of confusion in the history of economic thought. In neoclassical economics, real interest rates were designed as relative prices of contemporary and future goods and Böhm-Bawerk believed that misalignments were corrected by market forces, restoring the allocation of saving and investment as well as macroeconomic equilibrium. The intertemporal perspective in goods market analysis was modified in Wicksell and Keynes; the focus shifted to financial markets. According to the new Keynesian theory, monetary policy should be used to support intertemporal consumption smoothing. Because investment is neglected, this approach is unable to grasp the intertemporal coordination problem and delivers poor microfoundations for macroeconomic stabilization.
The new Keynesian microfoundation of macroeconomics
(2009) Spahn, Heinz-Peter
New Keynesian Macroeconomics (NKM) obeys to the new dogma that macroeconomics should be firmly grounded in First Principles of micro theory. Households are assumed to run an intertemporal optimization calculus with respect to leisure and consumption by making use of perfect financial markets. The supply side is organized so that full employment prevails. Macroeconomic coordination problems between saving and investment are absent. In order to make model predictions more compatible with empirical facts, NKM chooses "ad hoc" microfoundations: utility functions and market structures are designed arbitrarily to allow for persistence of macro variables. NKM's reduced hybrid macro model, with lags and expectational leads, is a useful "work horse", compatible with various micro reasoning. However, NKM's insistence on the representative agent obstructs an understanding of heterogeneous beliefs and learning.
Two-Pillar monetary policy and bootstrap expectations
(2007) Spahn, Heinz-Peter
The paper integrates the two-pillar Phillips curve, which explains expected inflation by the money growth trend, within a simple macro model. A Taylor-like interest rule contains also a money growth target. The model takes into account serially correlated supply and money demand shocks; the latter induce goods demand shocks, thereby establishing a feedback mechanism from money to markets which is missing in the modern New Keynesian approach. Two groups of market agents are distinguished from which one derives inflation expectations from money growth trend figures whereas the other builds rational expectations by way of learning. The inspection of output and inflation variances show that a policy of reacting to excess money growth requires precise information on shock characteristics whereas inflationgap and output-gap oriented interest policies provide more robust stabilization services.