Economic Policy Uncertainty Spillovers in Booms and Busts

57 Pages Posted: 22 Jul 2018

See all articles by Giovanni Caggiano

Giovanni Caggiano

Department of Economics, Monash University; University of Padua

Efrem Castelnuovo

University of Padua - Department of Economics

Juan Manuel Figueres

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management; European Central Bank (ECB)

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Date Written: June 06, 2018

Abstract

We estimate a nonlinear VAR to quantify the impact of economic policy uncertainty shocks originating in the US on the Canadian unemployment rate in booms and busts. We find strong evidence in favor of asymmetric spillover effects. Unemployment in Canada is shown to react to uncertainty shocks in economic busts only. Such shocks explain about 13% of the variance of the 2-year ahead forecast error of the Canadian unemployment rate in periods of slack vs. just 2% during economic booms. Counterfactual simulations lead to the identification of a novel “economic policy uncertainty spillovers channel”. According to this channel, jumps in US uncertainty foster economic policy uncertainty in Canada in the first place and, because of the latter, lead to a temporary increase in the Canadian unemployment rate. Evidence of asymmetric spillover effects due to US EPU shocks are also found for the UK economy. This evidence, which refers to a large economy having a low trade intensity with the US, supports our view that a channel other than trade could be behind our empirical results.

Keywords: economic policy uncertainty shocks, spillover effects, unemployment dynamics, smooth transition vector autoregressions, recessions

JEL Classification: C320, E320, E520

Suggested Citation

Caggiano, Giovanni and Castelnuovo, Efrem and Figueres, Juan Manuel, Economic Policy Uncertainty Spillovers in Booms and Busts (June 06, 2018). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 7086, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3214417 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3214417

Giovanni Caggiano

Department of Economics, Monash University ( email )

900 Dandenong Road
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Australia

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/giovannicaggiano72/home

University of Padua ( email )

Via 8 Febbraio, 2
Padova, Vicenza 35122
Italy

Efrem Castelnuovo (Contact Author)

University of Padua - Department of Economics ( email )

via Del Santo 33
Padova, 35123
Italy

Juan Manuel Figueres

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management ( email )

Via del Santo, 33
Padova, 35123
Italy

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

Sonnemannstrasse 22
Frankfurt am Main, 60314
Germany

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