Uncertainty, Financial Frictions and Nominal Rigidities: A Quantitative Investigation

Download or read book Uncertainty, Financial Frictions and Nominal Rigidities: A Quantitative Investigation written by Ambrogio Cesa-Bianchi and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are uncertainty shocks a major source of business cycle fluctuations? This paper studies the effect of a mean preserving shock to the variance of aggregate total factor productivity (macro uncertainty) and to the dispersion of entrepreneurs' idiosyncratic productivity (micro uncertainty) in a financial accelerator DSGE model with sticky prices. It explores the different mechanisms through which uncertainty shocks are propagated and amplified. The time series properties of macro and micro uncertainty are estimated using U.S. aggregate and firm-level data, respectively. While surprise increases in micro uncertainty have a larger impact on output than macro uncertainty, these account for a small (non-trivial) share of output volatility.