Economic fluctuations, productivity growth and stabilization policies: a keynesian growth perspective
The macroeconomic literature has traditionally separated the study of business cycles from the analysis of long-run productivity growth. Yet, the interactions between economic fluctuations, productivity growth and stabilization policies are well present in the policy debate, especially since the start of the Great Recession. In this proposal, I will develop a Keynesian growth framework to study business cycles and growth in a unified theory. The framework combines the Keynesian insight that fluctuations might be driven by changes in aggregate demand, with the notion, developed by the endogenous growth literature, that productivity growth is the result of firms’ investment in innovation.

In part I, I will develop a novel Keynesian growth model with heterogeneous firms, in the spirit of the state-of-the-art quantitative endogenous growth literature. I will use the framework to study the impact of monetary and fiscal policy on productivity growth; to understand the behavior of productivity during large recessions triggered by financial crises, such as the recent Great Recession; and to investigate the possibility that pessimistic expectations might give rise to periods of stagnation.

In part II, I will provide an open economy Keynesian growth model, able to capture the interactions between monetary policy, capital flows and productivity growth. I will use the framework to explain why the inception of the euro was associated with a sharp increase in capital flows across its member countries, and with stagnant productivity growth in countries recipients of capital inflows.

In part III, I will test the hypothesis, at the heart of the Keynesian growth framework, that productivity growth responds to business cycle fluctuations and to monetary and fiscal policy interventions. To this end, I will estimate the empirical response of productivity growth to policy and business cycle shocks, both in the United States and in a panel of advanced economies.