Low educational attainment is frequently pointed out as a barrier to social and economic development and most governments aim at increasing participation in higher education. However, effective strategies to increase aggregate demand require information on its most relevant determinants, which is difficult to obtain because applications to higher education are usually not organised at the country level. In this study, we utilise a large sample of data on applications available in Portugal to estimate a model of aggregate demand for higher education. Our estimates suggest that the economic context is relatively less relevant than policy orientations, and thus that sustaining or increasing higher education participation may be more dependent on political choice than on economic circumstances. The only relevant economic determinant in the model is unemployment which contradicting some previous research appears to exert a negative impact upon aggregate demand.

The objective of this paper is to examine the degree of persistence in final energy demand in Portugal. Our results suggest that when structural breaks are accounted for aggregate energy demand and all of its components are stationary. Accordingly, the response to shocks is not permanent. We find, however, strong levels of persistence. Demand for electricity is the most persistent component of aggregate demand while the levels of persistence for petroleum and gas are similar and close to the aggregate level. In turn, demand for coal and biomass are also similar and the least persistent. These results have important implications for the design of macroeconomic policies. Indeed, high persistent levels mean that temporary energy shocks translate into persistent changes in energy demand and thereby in less transient shocks to the overall economy. These results are also important for the design of environmental policies. The fact that energy demand is highly persistent means that the effects of environmental policies will tend to be long lasting. Also, the relatively high persistence of electricity, gas and petroleum and the fact that their levels of persistence are similar suggests that fuel switching policies involving these fuels will be relatively easy to implement.

This paper analyzes the relation between monetary policy and economic performance in Brazil during the period 1999-2006. In particular, it discusses the growth effects of the inflation targeting regime through its effects on aggregate demand. It is argued that monetary policy under IT reacts in a procyclical and asymmetric way to fluctuations in economic activity (too "tight" during recessions, not so "loose" during expansions). Such pattern may generate a downward bias in aggregate demand, with negative real effects on output growth and employment. Our results suggest that monetary policy has been procyclical and asymmetrical in Brazil under inflation targeting. The main economic policy implication of this study is that central banks should consider more seriously the real effects of monetary policy on output and employment.

The Brazilian economy pulled by the aggregate demand. This article aims to present the demand-led growth theory and some empirical evidences for a demand-led growth regime in Brazil. First of all, we will do a brief review of the theory of demand led-growth, based in the seminal work of Kaldor (1988), for whom long-run growth is determined by the growth rate of consumption expenditures and the growth rate of exports. Based in the empirical methodology developed by Atesoglu (2002), we run some econometric tests for the hypothesis of demand-led growth for Brazilian economy. The results of such tests shown that near of 85% of GDP growth in Brazil in the period 1991-2005 is explained by variables at the demand side of the economy. Besides that, based in the methodology developed by Ledesma and Thirwall (2002), we shown that natural rate of growth for Brazilian economy is endogenous, increasing during boom times. This means that appears to be no restrictions in the supply side of the economy for a faster growth of Brazilian economy. Finally, we argue that a necessary condition for a sustained growth of Brazilian economy is the adoption of a export-led growth model. For such it is necessary to put an end on the actual over-valuation of real exchange rate.

This dissertation consists of three essays on income risk and aggregate demand over the business cycle, each addressing an aspect of the Great Recession. The first chapter reframes the standard liquidity trap model to illustrate the costly feedback loop between idiosyncratic risk and aggregate demand. I first show that a liquidity trap can result from excess demand for precautionary savings in times of high uncertainty. Second, I show that the output and welfare costs of the ensuing recession depend crucially on how the drop in demand for output is translated into a reduction in demand for labor. Increased unemployment risk compounds the original rise in idiosyncratic productivity risk and reinforces precautionary motives, deepening the recession. Third, I show that increasing social insurance can raise output and welfare at the zero bound. I decompose these effects to distinguish the component unique to the liquidity trap environment and show that social insurance is most effective at the zero bound when it targets the type of idiosyncratic risk households face, which in turns depends on the labor market adjustment mechanism. The second paper offers a novel model of the connection between the consumer credit and home mortgage markets through an individual’s credit history. This paper introduces a novel justification for the home mortgage interest deduction. In an economy with both housing assets and consumer credit...

In This Paper We Present and Implement an Econometric Test of Both Negative Semi-Definiteness of the Matrix of Compensated Price Effects and of the Negative Quasi-Definiteness of the Matrix of Uncompensated Price Effects. This Test Allows Us to Evaluate Two Alternative Characterizations of Aggregate Demand Systems: the First, That They Behave Like Individual Demand Fuctions, and the Second, That They Respect the Properties Implied by the Assumptions Proposed by Hidebrand (1983) Or Grandmont (1984).

This paper critically reviews existing energy demand forecasting methodologies highlighting the methodological diversities and developments over the past four decades in order to investigate whether the existing energy demand models are appropriate for capturing the specific features of developing countries. The study finds that two types of approaches, econometric and end-use accounting, are used in the existing energy demand models. Although energy demand models have greatly evolved since the early 1970s, key issues such as the poor-rich and urban-rural divides, traditional energy resources, and differentiation between commercial and non-commercial energy commodities are often poorly reflected in these models. While the end-use energy accounting models with detailed sector representations produce more realistic projections compared with the econometric models, they still suffer from huge data deficiencies especially in developing countries. Development and maintenance of more detailed energy databases...

This study uses aggregate times series data (annual data from 1970-2001) and monthly data from January 1996 to June 2001 to estimate the price and income elasticity of demand for tobacco products in Indonesia. Using various model specifications used in the cigarette demand literature, and then selecting the best model, it estimates the real price elasticity of cigarette demand as -0.345 and income elasticity of demand as 0.473. This inplies that a 10 percent real price increase would reduce consumption by 3.4 percent, and a 10 percent real income increase would raise consumption by 4.7 percent. The economic crisis after 1997 was found to increase consumption, over and above the effects of price and income, and the warning label on cigarette packs required after 1991 appears to have no significant impact on demand. Estimates based on the shorter period of monthly data showed less responsiveness to price and incomes, as would be expected. The study simulates the effects of a tax increase on total tobacco excise revenues and predicts that an increase in the tax level of 10...

Economic growth slowed to 3.5 percent in 2013 and 2.7 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2014. The slowdown is the result of a number of factors such as slackening foreign direct investment (FDI), dependence on a limited number of commodity exports, and a difficult external economic environment. Consumer lending and remittances continued to support private consumption, but under-execution of government spending suppressed aggregate demand. On the supply side, the mining and energy sectors performed particularly badly, offsetting positive developments in manufacturing. Year-on-year inflation reached close to zero in August 2014, following a long decline since energy price increases caused it to flare up in July 2013. Twelve-month inflation slowed to 0.8 percent in August, well below the central bank s 2.5 5.5 percent target range. The decline came despite new electricity price increases in the same month. On the whole, second-round price pressures were minimal. Core inflation, excluding prices for food and fuel...

This paper provides empirical evidence for the Keynesian demand-driven propagation: initial rounds of job losses lead to additional rounds of job losses. The paper shows that U.S. counties with higher pre-existing exposure to tradable industries experienced larger job losses in non-tradable sectors during the Great Recession. This was arguably because laid-off tradable workers cut their consumption, which hurts local non-tradable firms. The finding is not driven by exposure to the construction sector, by the collapse in house prices, or by credit supply problems. In addition, the spillover is stronger when the focus is on the job losses of more income-elastic non-tradable sectors.

This paper discusses the theoretical arguments in favor of and against economic globalization and, with a view to ascertaining whether Latin America may be able to capture the globalization upside, examines the trends and salient features of Latin America's globalization as compared with that of Southeast Asia. The paper focuses on trade and financial integration as well as the aggregate demand structures (domestic demand-driven versus external demand-driven) that underpin the globalization process. It finds that Latin America is mitigating some bad side effects of financial globalization by moving toward a safer form of international financial integration and improving its macro-financial policy frameworks. Nonetheless, Latin America's progress in raising the quality of its international trade integration has been scant. The region's commodity-heavy trade structures and relatively poor quality of trade connectivity can hinder growth potential to the extent that they are less conducive to technology and learning spillovers. Moreover...

The term 'green jobs' can refer to employment in a narrowly defined set of industries providing environmental services. But it is more useful for the policy-maker to focus on the broader issue of the employment consequences of policies to correct environmental externalities such as anthropogenic climate change. Most of the literature focuses on direct employment created, with more cursory treatment of indirect and induced job creation, especially that arising from macroeconomic effects of policies. The potential adverse impacts of green growth policies on labor productivity and the costs of employment tend to be overlooked. More attention also needs to be paid in this literature to how labor markets work in different types of economy. There may be wedges between the shadow wage and the actual wage, particularly in developing countries with segmented labor markets and after adverse aggregate demand shocks, warranting a bigger and longer-lasting boost to green projects with high labor content. In these circumstances...

Global and regional economic development continues to face uncertainties in 2012. East Asia and the Pacific region's growth is estimated to slow down compared to 2011, but remains robust compared with other regions thanks to sustained domestic investment and consumption. Lao PDR continues to maintain robust growth this year but faces a challenge to manage domestic demand. On the supply side, the construction, services, industry and agriculture sectors are the main drivers of growth; while on the demand side, public spending and private investment including demand driven by preparations for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has played an important role in boosting the economy this year. In spite of robust growth, inflation has been declining, mostly on account of declining food and fuel inflation. However, home-grown and external risks associated with low reserves coverage, increased exposure to mining revenues, fast banking expansion with limited supervision capacity and a large number of newly announced large investment projects warrant close monitoring to preserve macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth. Stronger than expected revenue performance from the mining sector and external grants contributed to an improvement in the fiscal performance in FY11/12.With the contribution of mining revenue increasing...

The paper contains a framework for linking social protection with growth and productivity, an updated review of the literature, new original work filling in gaps in the available evidence, and a discussion of operational implications. The paper demonstrates that there was a shift in the economists' view on social protection, and now they are seen as a force that can make a positive contribution towards economic growth and reduce poverty. The paper looks at pathways in which social protection programs (social insurance and social assistance programs, as well as labor programs) can support better growth outcomes: (i) individual level (building and protecting human capital, and other productive assets, empowering poor individuals to invest or to adopt higher return strategies), (ii) local economy effects (enhancing community assets and infrastructure, positive spillovers from beneficiaries to non-beneficiaries), (iii) overall economy level (acting as stabilizers of aggregate demand, improving social cohesion and making growth?enhancing reforms more politically feasible). Most social protection programs affect growth through all of these pathways. But the evidence is very uneven; and there are knowledge gaps. The paper discusses operational implications for the design and implementation of Social Protection (SP) programs and proposes a work program for addressing knowledge gaps.

The authors present the first comparable dynamic panel estimates of labor demand elasticity, using data from Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. They examine the benefits, and limits of the Arellano, and Bond GMM in differences estimator, and the Blundell, and Bond GMM system estimator. They also explore the limitations of such measures for diagnosing flexibility in the labor market. Even accounting for the large variance induced by different estimation techniques, one probably cannot say much about the flexibility of different labor markets based on comparisons of the estimated elasticity of demand. Colombia, for example, which has severe restrictions on firing workers, has much higher long-run wage elasticity than Chile, which has no such restrictions. Three factors make such comparisons difficult: 1) Elasticity differ greatly across industries, so the composition of industry in each country probably affects the aggregate elasticity. Estimates are extremely dependent on the estimation approach, and specification. 2) Even for specific industries...

In the presence of aggregate demand spillovers, an imperfectly competitive firm's profit is positively related to aggregate income, which in turn rises with profits of all firms in the economy. This pecuniary externality makes a dollar of a firm's profit raise aggregate income by more than a dollar since other firms' profits also rise, and in this way gives rise to a "multiplier." Since such multipliers are ignored by firms making investment decisions, privately optimal investment decisions under uncertainty will not in general be socially optimal. Under reasonable conditions, investment is too low.; Economics

In a recent contribution to this journal, Lewis and MacDonald (2002) argue that Australian literature on aggregate demand for labour is permeated with misunderstandings and, as a result, existing empirical work has been misinterpreted. The objective of the present note is to argue that the interpretation of existing empirical studies, to the extent that they are based on a CES production technology, is broadly correct. We demonstrate that Lewis and McDonald have no basis for estimating anything more than the partial elasticity of labour demand, holding output constant, because their single-equation estimation does not identify the elasticity of demand for output.

We present a static model of aggregate demand and unemployment. The economy has a nonproduced good, a produced good, and labor. Product and labor markets have matching frictions. A general equilibrium is a set of prices, market tightnesses, and quantities such that buyers and sellers optimize given prices and tightnesses, and actual tightnesses equal posted tightnesses. In each frictional market,there is one more variable than equilibrium condition. To close the model, we take all prices as parameters. We obtain the following results: (1) unemployment and unsold production prevail in equilibrium; (2) each market can be slack, efficient, or tight if the price is too high, efficient, or too low; (3) product market tightness and sales are positively correlated under aggregate demand shocks but negatively correlated under aggregate supply shocks; (4) transfers from savers to spenders stimulate aggregate demand, product market tightness, and employment; (5) the government-purchase multiplier is positive when the economy is slack, zero when the economy is efficient,and negative when the economy is tight; (6) with unequal distribution of profits and labor income, a wage increase may stimulate aggregate demand and reduce unemployment.

This article develops a model of unemployment fluctuations. The model keeps the architecture of the general-disequilibrium model of Barro and Grossman (1971) but takes a matching approach to the labor and product markets instead of a disequilibrium approach. On the product and labor markets, both price and tightness adjust to equalize supply and demand. Since there are two equilibrium variables but only one equilibrium condition on each market, a price mechanism is needed to select an equilibrium. We focus on two polar mechanisms: fixed prices and competitive prices. When prices are fixed, aggregate demand affects unemployment as follows. An increase in aggregate demand leads firms to find more customers. This reduces the idle time of their employees and thus increases their labor demand. This in turn reduces unemployment. We combine the predictions of the model and empirical measures of product market tightness, labor market tightness, output, and employment to assess the sources of labor market fluctuations in the United States. First, we find that product market tightness and labor market tightness fluctuate a lot, which implies that the fixed-price equilibrium describes the data better than the competitive-price equilibrium. Next...

The effect of prices on aggregate demand (AD) is one of the most important questions in macroeconomics. The conventional assumption is that a lower price level increases ad. However, there are good reasons to believe the opposite. The monetary base on which the Pigou effect operates is small; the interest rate channel may be weak, or even blocked entirely; and Fisher debt effects are likely strong in modern financial economies with extensive credit. Moreover, increased debt burdens can unleash bankruptcy effects that destroy the banking system. This suggests Keynes was right about the price system's inability to solve deficient demand unemployment. This conclusion has enormous implications for both teaching of macroeconomics and economic policy.