Research by Valerie A. Ramey

Working Papers


* The Cyclical Behavior of the Price-Cost Markup with Christopher J. Nekarda, revised June 2010

* Defense News Shocks, 1939-2008: Estimates Based on News Sources , October 2009.

* How Much has Leisure Really Increased Since 1965? January 2007

* Ramey & Ramey Response to Chatterjee-Shukayev "Are Average Growth Rate and Volatility Related?" September 2006

* Tracking the Source of the Decline in GDP Volatility: An Analysis of the Automobile Industry with Daniel J. Vine, Revised March 11, 2004
A shorter version of this paper appeared in the December 2006 American Economic Review.

* Market Responses to Interindustry Wage Differentials with George J. Borjas, July 2000

* Capital Churning with Matthew D. Shapiro, July 1998

* Technology Commitment and the Cost of Business Cycles with Garey Ramey June 1991

(Note: This is the paper we originally submitted to the AER. The first half presents a theory showing how technology commitment and endogenous growth imply a high cost of business cycles. The second half analyzes the relationship between growth and volatility in U.S. time series data. The requested revision, which asked us to eliminate the theory and present cross-country evidence, is the paper published in 1995 under the title "Cross-Country Evidence on the Link between Volatility and Growth.")


Published and Forthcoming Papers by Topic

by Valerie A. Ramey


Effects of Government Spending

Identifying Government Spending Shocks: It's All in the Timing , revised June 2010, forthcoming Quarterly Journal of Economics. Background Narrative Data

Industry Evidence on the Effects of Government Spending with Christopher J. Nekarda, forthcoming American Economic Journal - Macroeconomics

Costly Capital Reallocation and the Effects of Government Spendingwith Matthew D. Shapiro, Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, June 1998.

Time Use

The Rug Rat Race with Garey Ramey, revised April 2010, forthcoming Brookings Papers on Economic Activitiy.

Measures of Per Capita Hours and Their Implications for the Technology-Hours Debate with Neville Francis, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Sept. 2009.Working Paper version Data for paper. Updated total hours data

A Century of Work and Leisure with Neville Francis, American Economic Journal - Macroeconomics , July 2009. Data

Time Spent in Home Production in the 20th Century United States The Journal of Economic History , March 2009. Data

The Nature and Consequences of Economic Fluctuations

Measures of Per Capita Hours and Their Implications for the Technology-Hours Debate with Neville Francis, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Sept. 2009.Working Paper version Data for paper. Updated total hours data

The Source of Historical Fluctuations with Neville Francis, NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2004.

Is the Technology-Driven Real Business Cycle Hypothesis Dead? Shocks and Aggregate Fluctuations Revisited with Neville Francis, Journal of Monetary Economics Nov. 2005.Working Paper version

h4> Cross Country Evidence on the Link between Volatility and Growth with Garey Ramey, American Economic Review, Dec. 1995.Data

Output Fluctuations at the Plant Level with Timothy F. Bresnahan, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1994, pp. 593-624.

The Role of the Auto Industry In the Macroeconomy

Oil, Automobiles and the U.S. Economy: How Much Have Things Really Changed? with Daniel J. Vine, forthcoming NBER Macroeconomics Annual.

Declining Volatility in the U.S. Automobile Industry with Daniel J. vine, American Economic Review , December 2006.Data

Output Fluctuations at the Plant Level with Timothy F. Bresnahan, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug. 1994, pp. 593-624.

Segment Shifts and Capacity Utilization in the U.S. Automobile Industry with Timothy F. Bresnahan, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1993.

The Effects of Oil Shocks

Oil, Automobiles and the U.S. Economy: How Much Have Things Really Changed? with Daniel J. Vine, forthcoming NBER Macroeconomics Annual.

Segment Shifts and Capacity Utilization in the U.S. Automobile Industry with Timothy F. Bresnahan, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1993.

Inventories

Declining Volatility in the U.S. Automobile Industry with Daniel J. vine, American Economic Review , December 2006.Data

Why Do Real and Nominal Inventory-Sales Ratios Have Different Trends? with Daniel J. Vine, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking Oct. 2004.Working Paper version

Inventorieswith Kenneth D. West, Handbook of Macroeconomics, 1999.Working Paper version

Segment Shifts and Capacity Utilization in the U.S. Automobile Industry with Timothy F. Bresnahan, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1993.

Nonconvex Costs and the Behavior of Inventories, Journal of Political Economy, Apr. 1991.

Inventories as Factors of Production and Economic Fluctuations, American Economic Review, June 1989.

Capital Reallocation and Depreciation

Why Do computers Depreciate? with Michael Geske and Matthew D. Shapiro Hard to Measure Goods and Services: Essays in Honor of Zvi Griliches , University of chicago Press, 2007.

Displaced Capital: A Study of Aerospace Plant Closingswith Matthew D. Shapiro, Journal of Political Economy, Oct. 2001.

Costly Capital Reallocation and the Effects of Government Spendingwith Matthew D. Shapiro, Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, June 1998.

Money and Credit

The Cost Channel of Monetary Transmission with Marvin J. Barth, NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2001.

How Important is the Credit Channel in the Transmission of Monetary Policy?, Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Dec. 1993.

The Source of Fluctuations in Money: Evidence from Trade Credit , Journal of Monetary Economics, Nov. 1992.

Wage Inequality and Trade

Foreign Competition, Market Power and Wage Inequality with George J. Borjas, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110, Nov. 1995, pp. 1075-1110.

The Relationship between Wage Inequality and Trade with George J. Borjas in The Changing Distribution of Income in an Open U.S. Economy eds. J.H. Bergstrand, T.F. Cosimano, J.W. Houck and R.G. Sheehan, 1994.

Time Series Evidence on the Sources of Trends in Wage Inequality with George J. Borjas, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 1994.

Miscellaneous

Liquidity Constraints and Intertemporal Consumer Optimization: Theory and Evidence from Durable Goodswith Eun Young chah and Ross M. Starr, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, Feb. 1995.

The Effects of Market Organization on Conspiracies in Restraint of Trade, with R. Mark Isaac and Arlington Williams, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, June 1984.