How Different Is the Cyclical Behavior of Home Production Across Countries?
IMF Working Papers, February 1, 2006
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Ayhan Kose, William Blankenau
- Published: February 1, 2006
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451863062.001
Overview and Research Question
- Study objective: Examine stylized business cycle properties of household (home) production in four industrialized countries: Canada, the United States, Germany, and Japan.
- Methodology: Employ a dynamic small open economy business cycle model that incorporates a household production sector to generate simulated data on:
- home output,
- hours worked in the home sector,
- hours spent on leisure.
Key Findings
- Volatility and correlations:
- Home output is more volatile than market output in each country.
- Home sector hours are about as volatile as market sector hours.
- Leisure is the least volatile series in each country.
- Leisure hours and home hours are countercyclical in all countries.
- Home output is not highly correlated with market output.
- Persistence and cross-country patterns:
- Home sector variables are generally less persistent than market variables.
- Cross-country correlations related to home production tend to be lower than those related to market production.
- Cross-country similarity:
- Despite known structural differences in labor markets across the four countries, the cyclical features of home sector variables are similar across the countries considered.
Data, Scope, and Subject Tags
- Countries analyzed: Canada, the United States, Germany, Japan.
- Subjects: Business cycles, Consumption, Exports, Labor markets, Productivity.
- Keywords: market sector, standard deviation, time series, WP.