TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chari,V.V.
AU  - Kehoe,Patrick J.
AU  - McGrattan,Ellen
TI  - Business Cycle Accounting
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10351
PY  - 2004
Y2  - March 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10351
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10351.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Varadarajan V. Chari
Department of Economics
University of Minnesota
1035 Heller Hall
271 - 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel: 612/626-5171
Fax: (612) 624-0209
E-Mail: varadarajanvchari@gmail.com

Patrick Kehoe
Research Department
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
90 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN  55480-0291
Tel: 612/204-5525
Fax: 612/204-5515
E-Mail: pkehoe@res.mpls.frb.fed.us

Ellen McGrattan
Research Department
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
90 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55480
Tel: 612/204-5523
Fax: 612/204-5515
E-Mail: erm@mcgrattan.mpls.frb.fed.us
AB  - We propose a simple method to help researchers develop quantitative models of economic fluctuations. The method rests on the insight that many models are equivalent to a prototype growth model with time-varying wedges which resemble productivity, labor and investment taxes, and government consumption. Wedges corresponding to these variables -- effciency, labor, investment, and government consumption wedges -- are measured and then fed back into the model in order to assess the fraction of various fluctuations they account for. Applying this method to U.S. data for the Great Depression and the 1982 recession reveals that the effciency and labor wedges together account for essentially all of the fluctuations; the investment wedge plays a decidedly tertiary role, and the government consumption wedge, none. Analyses of the entire postwar period and alternative model specifications support these results. Models with frictions manifested primarily as investment wedges are thus not promising for the study of business cycles.
ER  -