Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:07:08.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

INDETERMINACY, BIFURCATIONS, AND UNEMPLOYMENT FLUCTUATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

FRÉDÉRIC DUFOURT*
Affiliation:
Université Louis Pasteur, BETA
TERESA LLOYD-BRAGA
Affiliation:
Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP-FCEE) and CEPR
LEONOR MODESTO
Affiliation:
Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP-FCEE) and IZA
*
Address correspondence to: Frédéric Dufourt, Beta, UMR 7522 of CNRS, University Louis Pasteur, 61 Avenue de la Foret Noire F67085 Strasbourg, France; e-mail: [email protected].

Abstract

We incorporate imperfectly insured unemployment in the finance constrained economy proposed by Woodford (1986), by introducing unions and unemployment benefits financed by labor taxation. We show that this simple extension of the Woodford model changes drastically its stability conditions and local dynamics around the steady state. In fact, in contrast to related models in the literature, we find that, under constant returns to scale in production: (i) indeterminacy always prevails in the case of a unitary elasticity of substitution between capital and labor and (ii) flip and Hopf bifurcations occur for empirically credible elasticities of substitution between capital and labor, so that a rich set of dynamics may emerge at “realistic” parameters' values.

Type
ARTICLES
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Barinci, Jean-Paul and Chéron, Arnaud (2001) Sunspots and the business cycle in a finance constrained economy. Journal of Economic Theory 97, 3049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basu, Susanto and Fernald, John G. (1997) Returns to scale in U.S. production: Estimates and implications. Journal of Political Economy 105, 249283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benhabib, Jess and Farmer, R. (1994) Indeterminacy and increasing returns. Journal of Economic Theory 63, 1941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnside, Craig, Eichenbaum, Martin, and Rebelo, Sergio T. (1995) Capacity utilization and returns to scale. In Bernanke, Ben S. and Rotemberg, Julio J. (eds.), NBER Macroeconomics Annual 10, pp. 67110, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Cazzavillan, Guido, Lloyd-Braga, Teresa, and Pintus, Patrick (1998) Multiple steady states and endogenous fluctuations with increasing returns to scale in production. Journal of Economic Theory 80, 60107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooley, Thomas F. and Prescott, Edward C. (1995) Economic growth and business cycles. In Cooley, Thomas F. (ed.), Frontiers of Business Cycle Research, pp. 138. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaton, Angus (1991) Saving and liquidity constraints. Econometrica 59, 12211248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffy, John and Papageorgiou, Chris (2000) A cross-country empirical investigation of the aggregate production function specification. Journal of Economic Growth 5, 87120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandmont, Jean-Michel, Pintus, Patrick, and Vilder, Robin de (1998) Capital-labor substitution and competitive nonlinear endogenous business cycles. Journal of Economic Theory 80, 1459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Gary D. (1985) Indivisible labor and the business cycle. Journal of Monetary Economics 16, 309327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamermesh, Daniel S. (1993) Labor Demand. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd-Braga, Teresa and Modesto, Leonor (2007) Indeterminacy in a finance constrained unionized economy. Journal of Mathematical Economics 43, 347364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pintus, Patrick (2004) Aggregate Instability in the Fixed-Cost Approach to Public Spending. Mimeo, Université Aix-Marseille II.Google Scholar
Rogerson, Richard (1988) Indivisible labor, lotteries and equilibrium. Journal of Monetary Economics 21, 1, 316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt-Grohé, Stephanie and Martin, Uribe (1997) Balanced-budget rules, distortionary taxes, and aggregate instability. Journal of Political Economy 105, 9761000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seegmuller, Thomas (2004) Market Imperfections and Endogenous Fluctuations: A General Approach. Mimeo, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg I.Google Scholar
Woodford, Michael (1986) Stationary sunspot equilibria in a finance constrained economy. Journal of Economic Theory 40, 128137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar