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Increasing returns and unsynchronized wage adjustment in sunspot models of the business cycle

Kevin Huang () and Qinglai Meng

Journal of Economic Theory, 2012, vol. 147, issue 1, 284-309

Abstract: A challenge to models of equilibrium indeterminacy based on increasing returns is that required increasing returns for generating indeterminacy can be implausibly large and rise quickly with the relative risk aversion in labor. We show that unsynchronized wage adjustment via a relative wage effect can both lower the required degree of increasing returns for indeterminacy to a plausible level and make it invariant to the relative risk aversion in labor. Consequently, indeterminacy and sunspot-driven fluctuations can emerge for plausible increasing returns regardless of the relative risk aversion in labor. Our model generates reasonable dynamics in terms of matching the business cycle, and sunspot shocks become more important with labor market friction.

Keywords: Increasing returns; Relative wage; Risk aversion in labor; Indeterminacy; Sunspot (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E12 E31 E52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Working Paper: Increasing Returns and Unsynchronized Wage Adjustment in Sunspot Models of the Business Cycle (2010) Downloads
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:147:y:2012:i:1:p:284-309

DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2011.10.013

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