Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/86630 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 06-105/4
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
A growing number of empirical studies provides evidence that dynamic properties of macroeconomic time series have been changing over time. Model-based procedures for the measurement of business cycles should therefore allow model parameters to adapt over time. In this paper the time dependencies of parameters are implied by a time dependent sample spectrum. Explicit model specifications for the parameters are therefore not required. Parameter estimation is carried out in the frequency domain by maximising the spectral likelihood function. The time dependent spectrum is specified as a semi-parametric smoothing spline ANOVA function that can be formulated in state space form. Since the resulting spectral likelihood function is time-varying, model parameter estimates become time-varying as well. This new and simple approach to business cycle extraction includes bootstrap procedures for the computation of confidence intervals and real-time procedures for the forecasting of the spectrum and the business cycle. We illustrate the methodology by presenting a complete business cycle analysis for two U.S. macroeconomic time series. The empirical results are promising and provide significant evidence for the great moderation of the U.S. business cycle.
Subjects: 
Frequency domain estimation
frequency domain bootstrap
time-varying parameters
unobserved components models
JEL: 
C13
C14
C22
E32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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