Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T17:20:20.767Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Macro Disequilibrium Model for Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Peter Stalder*
Affiliation:
Center for the Research of Economic Activity, ETH, Zürich
Get access

Summary

This paper presents a disequilibrium model for Switzerland, focusing on the production sector and the associated spillover effects. Firms' decisions on output supply, labor demand and investment are analysed on basis of a vintage approach, involving pressure of demand, profitability and relative prices as determinants. Macro relationships are derived by aggregating over micro markets on which regimes are allowed to differ. In the resulting nonlinear macro structure the response of output and employment to demand-side and supply-side factors varies through the cycle, depending on the regime-mix (measured by survey data). Inventories and unfilled orders act as buffer stocks, modifying the dynamic link between current demand and output.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article présente un modèle de déséquilibre pour la Suisse, centré sur le bloc production et les effets de report associées. Les décisions des entreprises, concernant l'offre de produit, la demande de travail et les investissements, sont analysées dans le cadre d'un modèle à générations de capital, ayant les débouchés, la profitabilité et les prix relatifs comme variables. Les relations macro sont dérivées par agrégation de micro-marchés sous différents régimes. Dans cette structure macroéconomique ( non-linéaire), les réponses de la production et de l'emploi aux variations de demande et d'offre varient dans le cycle, en fonction du type de régime prévalant. Les stocks et les commandes insatisfaites jouent un effet de tampon modifiant la relation dynamique entre demande et production.

Keywords

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1991 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

(*)

The econometric work leading to this article was done during a visit at Princeton University, where I benefited from discussions with R.E. Quandt, A.S. Blinder and H.S. Rosen. Earlier versions of the paper were presented in seminars at CORE and Université de Montreal, at the 2nd Conference on European Unemployment in Chelwood Gate, the 1989 Spring Meeting of the EEA and the 2nd Conference on Disequilibrium Econometrics in Paris. I am indebted to two anonymous referees and many other people for support and helpful comments. Special thanks go to J.H. Drèze, C. Gourieroux, S. Gregoir, P. Kooiman, J.-P. Lambert, H.R. Sneessens and J. Waelbroeck. A grant from Swiss National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

References

REFERENCES

Ando, A.K., Modigliani, F., Rasche, R. and Turnowsky, S J. (1974), On the Role of Expectations and Technological Change in an Investment Function, International Economic Review, 15, 384414.Google Scholar
Blinder, A.S. (1980), Inventories in the Keynesian Macro Model, Kyklos, 33, 585614.Google Scholar
Blinder, A.S. (1981), Inventories and the Structure of Macro Models, American Economic Review, 71, 1116.Google Scholar
Blinder, A.S. (1986), Can the Production Smoothing Model of Inventory Behavior be saved?, Quarterly Journal of Economics, CI, 431453.Google Scholar
Christiano, L.J., and Eichenbaum, M. (1987), Temporal Aggregation and Structural Inference in Macroeconomics, in: Brunner, K. and Meltzer, A.R. (eds.), Carnegie Rochester Conference on Public Policy: Bubbles and Other Essays, 26, 63130.Google Scholar
Drèze, J.R., Bean, Ch., Lambert, J.P., Layard, R. and Sneessens, H.R. (1990), Europe's Unemployment Problem, forthcoming M.I.T. Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Engle, R.F., Hendry, D.F. and Richard, J.-F. (1983), Exogeneity, Econometrica, 51, 277304.Google Scholar
Etter, R., Nerlove, M. and Willson, D. (1989), Swiss Inventory Investment Behaviour - A Recursive Simultaneous Equations Model, Paper presented at the 19th CIRET- Conference, Working Paper 25, Center for the Research of Economic Activity, KOF-ETH, Zurich.Google Scholar
Fair, R.C. (1989), The Production Smoothing Model is Alive and Well, Journal of Monetary Economics, 24, 353370.Google Scholar
Ghali, M.A. (1987), Seasonality, Aggregation, and the Testing of the Production Smoothing Hypothesis, American Economic Review, 77, 464469.Google Scholar
Kooiman, P. (1984), Smoothing the Aggregate Fix-Price Model and the Use of Business Survey Data, Economic Journal, 94, 899913.Google Scholar
Kooiman, P. and Kloek, T. (1985), An Empirical Two Market Disequilibrium Model for Dutch Manufacturing, European Economic Review, 29, 323354.Google Scholar
Lambert, J.P. and Mulkay, B. (1986), Investment in a Disequilibrium Context, or Does Profitability Really Matter?, CORE Discussion Paper 8703, Université Catholique de Louvain.Google Scholar
Lambert, J.P. (1988), Disequilibrium Macro Models: Theory and Estimation of Rationing Models Using Business Survey Data, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Laroque, G. (1988), Comparative Estimates of a Macroeconomic Disequilibrium Model: France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.A. Document de Travail 8806, INSEE, Paris.Google Scholar
Malinvaud, E. (1987), Capital productif, incertitude et profitabilité, Annales d'économie et statistique, 5, 136.Google Scholar
Miron, J.A. and Zeldes, S.R (1988), Seasonality, Cost Shocks, and the Production Smoothing Model of Inventories, Econometrica, 53, 12511279.Google Scholar
OECD (1985), Switzerland - Economic Survey, OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Quandt, R.E. (1983), Computational Problems and Methods, in: Griliches, Z. and Intriligator, M.D., Handbook of Econometrics 1, North Holland, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Quandt, R.E. (1988), The Econometrics of Disequilibrium, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Rahiala, M. and Terasvirta, T. (1988), Formation of Firms Production Decisions in Finnish Manufacturing Industries, Journal of Applied Econonmetrics, 3, 125127.Google Scholar
Seitz, R. (1988), Still More on the Speed of Adjustment in Inventory Models: A Lesson in Aggregation, Mimeo., University of Mannheim.Google Scholar
Sneessens, H.R. (1983), A Macroeconomic Rationing Model of the Belgian Economy, European Economic Review, 20, 193215.Google Scholar
Sneessens, H.R. and Drèze, J.H. (1986), A Discussion of Belgian Unemployment, Combining Traditional Concepts and Disequilibrium Economics, Economica, 53, 89119.Google Scholar
Stalder, P. (1989a), A Disequilibrium Model with Smooth Regime Transitions and a Keynesian Spillover for Switzerland's Labor Market, European Economic Review, 33, 863893.Google Scholar
Stalder, P. (1989b), Construction of a Macro Disequilibrium Model for Switzerland with Continuous Regime Transitions and Endogenous Investment, Mimeo., Centre for the Research of Economic Activity, KOF-ETH, Zurich.Google Scholar