Norges Bank

Staff Memo

The financial accelerator and the real economy: A small macroeconometric model for Norway with financial frictions

Author:
Roger Hammersland and Cathrine Bolstad Træe
Series:
Staff Memo
Number:
2/2012

Abstract
This paper studies the salient features of a core macroeconometric model that allows for selfreinforcing co-movements between credit, asset prices and real economic activity. In contrast to the economic literature that cultivates highly stylized model representations aimed at illustrating the workings and the implications of such features, the model of this paper integrates no less than two mutually reinforcing financial accelerator mechanisms in a fullfledged core macroeconomic model framework. Noteworthy, the impulse responses of such a model turns out to be very much in line with the ones one would have expected using a typical SVAR/DSGE model, though the amplitude of shocks is in most cases stronger than the ones pertaining to these kinds of models. This is due to the workings of the financial accelerators that contribute to the magnification of the effects of shocks to the economy. Furthermore, a forecast comparison undertaken between our model and an alternative macroeconometric model without a financial block, suggests that financial feedback mechanisms may improve the forecasting properties of theory-informed macroeconometric models.

Staff Memo inneholder utredninger og dokumentasjon skrevet av Norges Banks ansatte og andre forfattere tilknyttet Norges Bank. Synspunkter og konklusjoner i arbeidene er ikke nødvendigvis representative for Norges Bank.

ISSN 1504-2596 (online)

Published 24 January 2012 15:30
Published 24 January 2012 15:30