Replication data for: Are Government Spending Multipliers Greater during Periods of Slack? Evidence from Twentieth-Century Historical Data

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Michael T. Owyang; Valerie A. Ramey; Sarah Zubairy

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/11/2019 02:32:PM
ORZ_AEA_Data.xls	application/vnd.ms-excel	226.5 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM
Readme.txt	text/plain	1.7 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM
figures1_2.m	text/plain	3.2 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM
main_canada.m	text/plain	7.2 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM
main_us.m	text/plain	7.2 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM
nwest.m	text/plain	2.8 KB	10/11/2019 02:31:PM

Project Citation:

Owyang, Michael T., Ramey, Valerie A., and Zubairy, Sarah. Replication data for: Are Government Spending Multipliers Greater during Periods of Slack? Evidence from Twentieth-Century Historical Data. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2013. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/E112611V1

Project Description

Summary: A key question that has arisen during recent debates is whether government spending multipliers are larger during times when resources are idle. This paper seeks to shed light on this question by analyzing new quarterly historical data covering multiple large wars and depressions in the United States and Canada. Using Jorda's (2005) method for estimating impulse responses, we find no evidence that multipliers are greater during periods of high unemployment in the United States. In every case, they are below unity. We do find evidence of higher multipliers during periods of slack in Canada, with some multipliers above unity.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      E23 Macroeconomics: Production
      E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
      E32 Business Fluctuations; Cycles
      E62 Fiscal Policy
      N11 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
      N12 Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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V1 [2019-10-11]

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