The Value of Risk: Measuring the Service Output of U.S. Commercial Banks (2008)
Basu, Susanto, Inklaar, Robert, Wang, J. Christina
Rather than charging direct fees, banks often charge implicitly for their services via interest spreads. As a result, much of bank output has to be estimated indirectly. In contrast to current...
Laurence Ball, Robert Moffitt, Yelena Takhtamanova, Robert Tchaidze, Gergana Trainor, Huiyan Zhang, ...
This paper is part of the Sustainable Employment Initiative of The Century and Russell Sage Foundations. We are grateful for research assistance from Cristian de Ritis, Daniel Leigh, Kevin Moore,...
Evidence from U.S Industry Data (2006)
Susanto Basu, John Fernald, Susanto Basu, John Fernald
The views in this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or the Board of Governors of...
many useful comments and suggestions I thank Matthew Shapiro. To earlier versions of this (2001)
Attila Rátfai, Robert Barsky, Susanto Basu, Ufuk Demiroglu, Gábor Körösi, Todd Stinebrickner
Abstract. Standard macroeconomic forecasting indicators and techniques perform poorly in predicting inflation in the short-run. In contrast, the present paper shows that microeconomic price data...
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Matthew D. Shapiro
Measured productivity growth increased substantially during the second half of the current economic expansion. This paper examines whether this increase owes to an increase in the rate of...
Corruption in Transition (1998)
Countries making the transition to a market economy often experience an increase in corruption along with an increase in growth. This observation is puzzling in the context of current models, which...
Are Technology Improvements Contractionary? (1998)
Susanto Basu, Susanto Basu, John Fernald, John Fernald, Miles Kimball, Miles Kimball
: Yes. We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for imperfect competition, varying utilization of capital and labor, and aggregation effects. On impact, when technology...
Aggregate Productivity and Aggregate Technology (1997)
Susanto Basu, Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, John G. Fernald
NOTE: International Finance Discussion Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment. References in publications to International Finance Discussion Papers...
Countries making the transition to a market economy often experience an increase in corruption along with an increase in growth. This observation is puzzling in the context of current models, which...
The structure of production :--implications for aggregate supply /--by Susanto Basu. (1992)
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1992.
Expectations of others' expectations and convergence to rationality / (1986)
Allyn A. Young Prize--Harvard University, 1986.
Countries making the transition to a market economy often experience an increase in corruption along with an increase in growth. This observation is puzzling in the context of current models, which...
Countries making the transition to a market economy often experience an increase in corruption along with an increase in growth. This observation is puzzling in the context of current models, which...
Risk bearing, implicit financial services, and specialization in the financial industry
J. Christina Wang, Susanto Basu
What is the output of financial institutions? And how can we measure their nominal and, more importantly, real value, especially since many financial services are provided without explicit charges?...
New Evidence on Durable Goods Biased Technological Change
Technological Change, Multisector Growth Models, Embodied technology
Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?
Susanto Basu, John Fernald, Miles Kimball
Yes. We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for imperfect competition, varying utilization of capital and labor, and aggregation effects. On impact, when technology...
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Nicholas Oulton, Sylaja Srinivasan
We argue that unmeasured investments in intangible organizational capital—associated with the role of information and communications technology (ICT) as a ‘general purpose technology’—can...
Optimal Advice for Monetary Policy
Susanto Basu, Miles S. Kimball, N. Gregory Mankiw, David N. Weil
This paper addresses the issue of how to give optimal advice about monetary policy when it is known that the advice may not be heeded. We examine a simple macroeconomic model in which monetary policy...
Intermediate Goods and Business Cycles: Implications for Productivity and Welfare.
This paper presents an aggregate demand-driven model of business cycles that provides a new explanation for the procyclicality of productivity and simultaneously predicts large welfare losses from...
Business Cycles in International Historical Perspective
This paper examines business cycles theoretically and empirically, with a quantitative study based on data for a cross section of countries. Theoretical concerns indicate that the properties of...
Technology and business cycles; how well do standard models explain the facts?
Business cycles ; Technology ; Econometric models
Many people point to information and communications technology (ICT) as the key for understanding the acceleration in productivity in the United States since the mid-1990s. Stories of ICT as a...
Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Miles S. Kimball
Yes. We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for aggregation effects, varying utilization of capital and labor, nonconstant returns, and imperfect competition. On impact,...
Many people point to information and communications technology (ICT) as the key for understanding the acceleration in productivity in the United States since the mid-1990s. Stories of ICT as a...
Many people point to information and communications technology (ICT) as the key for understanding the acceleration in productivity in the United States since the mid-1990s. Stories of ICT as a...
A Theory of the Reform of Bureaucratic Institutions
By bureaucratic institutions or bureaucracy, we mean the rules and regulations that are implemented by government agencies. Burdensome bureaucratic institutions are leading obstacles to economic...
Constant returns and small markups in U.S. manufacturing
Productivity ; Manufactures
Returns to scale in U.S. production: estimates and implications
A typical (roughly) two-digit industry in the United States appears to have constant or slightly decreasing returns to scale. Three puzzles emerge, however. First, estimates tend to rise at higher...
Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology
Aggregate productivity and aggregate technology are meaningful but distinct concepts. We show that a slightly-modified Solow productivity residual measures changes in economic welfare, even when...
Are technology improvements contractionary?
Susanto Basu, John Fernald, Miles Kimball
We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for imperfect competition, varying utilization of capital and labor, and aggregation effects. On impact, when technology improves,...
Why is productivity procyclical? Why do we care?
Productivity rises in booms and falls in recessions. There are four main explanations for procyclical productivity: (i) procyclical technology shocks, (ii) widespread imperfect competition and...
Why is productivity procyclical? Why do we care?
Productivity rises in booms and falls in recessions. There are four main explanations for this procyclical productivity: (i) procyclical technology shocks, (ii) widespread imperfect competition and...
Productivity growth in the 1990s: technology, utilization, or adjustment
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Matthew D. Shapiro
Measured productivity growth increased substantially during the second half of the 1990s. This paper examines whether this increase owes to an increase in the rate of technological change or whether...
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Nicholas Oulton, Sylaja Srinivasan
Solow's paradox has disappeared in the United States but remains alive and well in the United Kingdom. In particular, the U.K. experienced an information and communications technology (ICT)...
Are technology improvements contractionary?
Susanto Basu, John Fernald, Miles Kimball
Yes. We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for varying utilization of capital and labor, non- constant returns and imperfect competition, and aggregation effects. On...
A general-equilibrium asset-pricing approach to the measurement of nominal and real bank output
Christina Wang, Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald
This paper addresses the proper measurement of financial service output that is not priced explicitly. It shows how to impute nominal service output from financial intermediaries’ interest income...
Appropriate Technology And Growth
We model growth and technology transfer in a world where technologies are specific to particular combinations of inputs. Unlike the usual specification, our model does not imply that an improvement...
Procyclical Productivity: Increasing Returns or Cyclical Utilization?
This paper investigates the relative importance of cyclical fluctuations in labor and capital utilization, increasing returns to scale, and technology shocks as explanations for procyclical...
The value of risk: measuring the service output of U. S. commercial banks
Susanto Basu, Robert Inklaar, J. Christina Wang
Rather than charging direct fees, banks often charge implicitly for their services via interest spreads. As a result, much of bank output has to be estimated indirectly. In contrast to current...
Intermediate Goods and Business Cycles: Implications for Productivity and Welfare
This paper presents an aggregate demand-driven model of business cycles that provides a new explanation for the procyclicality of productivity, and simultaneously predicts large welfare losses from...
Aggregate Productivity and the Productivity of Aggregates
Explanations of procyclical productivity play a key role in a variety of business-cycle models. Most of these models, however, explain this procyclicality within a representative-firm paradigm. This...
Appropriate Technology and Growth
We present a model of growth and technology transfer based on the idea that technologies are specific to particular combinations of inputs. We argue that this model is more realistic than the usual...
Cyclical Productivity with Unobserved Input Variation
Susanto Basu, Miles S. Kimball
In this paper, we derive and estimate relationships governing variable utilization of capital and labor for a firm solving a dynamic cost-minimization problem. Our method allows for (i) imperfect...
Procyclical Productivity: Increasing Returns or Cyclical Utilization?
It has long been argued that cyclical fluctuations in labor and capital utilization and the presence of overhead labor and capital are important for explaining procyclical productivity. Here I...
Are Apparent Productive Spillovers a Figment of Specification Error?
Using data on gross output for two-digit manufacturing industries, we find that an increase in the output of one manufacturing sector has little or no significant effect on the productivity of other...
Business Cycles in International Historical Perspective
This paper examines business cycles theoretically and empirically, with a quantitative study based on experience over the long run and in a cross section of countries. Several major questions in...
Why Is Productivity Procyclical? Why Do We Care?
Productivity rises in booms and falls in recessions. There are four main explanations for this procyclical productivity: (i) procyclical technology shocks, (ii) widespread imperfect competition and...
Productivity Growth in the 1990s: Technology, Utilization, or Adjustment?
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Matthew D. Shapiro
Measured productivity growth increased substantially during the second half of the 1990s. This paper examines whether this increase owes to an increase in the rate of technological change or whether...
Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald, Nicholas Oulton, Sylaja Srinivasan
We argue that unmeasured investments in intangible organizational capital associated with the role of information and communications technology (ICT) as a general purpose technology' can explain the...
Are Technology Improvements Contractionary?
Susanto Basu, John Fernald, Miles Kimball
Yes. We construct a measure of aggregate technology change, controlling for varying utilization of capital and labor, non-constant returns and imperfect competition, and aggregation effects. On...
Returns to Scale in U.S. Production: Estimates and Implications.
Basu, Susanto, Fernald, John G
A typical two-digit industry in the United States appears to have approximately constant returns to scale. Three puzzles emerge, however. First, estimates rise at higher levels of aggregation....
The Value of Risk: Measuring the Service Output of U.S. Commercial Banks
Susanto Basu, Robert Inklaar, J. Christina Wang
Rather than charging direct fees, banks often charge implicitly for their services via interest spreads. As a result, much of bank output has to be estimated indirectly. In contrast to current...
A General-Equilibrium Asset-Pricing Approach to the Measurement of Nominal and Real Bank Output
J. Christina Wang, Susanto Basu, John G. Fernald
This paper addresses the proper measurement of financial service output that is not priced explicitly. It shows how to impute nominal service output from financial intermediaries’ interest...
Risk Bearing, Implicit Financial Services and Specialization in the Financial Industry
J. Christina Wang, Susanto Basu
This paper makes three points regarding the proper measurement of the output of financial intermediaries. Two of them concern the measurement of nominal financial output, especially banking output....
The Value of Risk: Measuring the Service Output of U.S. Commercial Banks
Basu, Susanto, Inklaar, Robert, Wang, J. Christina
Rather than charging direct fees, banks often charge implicitly for their services via interest spreads. As a result, much of bank output has to be estimated indirectly. In contrast to current...
What do we know and not know about potential output?
Potential output is an important concept in economics. Policymakers often use a one-sector neoclassical model to think about long-run growth, and often assume that potential output is a smooth series...
What do we know (and not know) about potential output?
Potential output is an important concept in economics. Policymakers often use a one-sector neoclassical model to think about long-run growth, and they often assume that potential output is a smooth...