DP3267 Did Sunspot Forces Cause the Great Depression?
Author(s): | Sharon G Harrison, Mark Weder |
Publication Date: | March 2002 |
Keyword(s): | dynamic general equilibrium, great depression, sunspots |
JEL(s): | E32, N12 |
Programme Areas: | International Macroeconomics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=3267 |
We apply a dynamic general equilibrium model to the period of the Great Depression. In particular, we examine a modification of the real business cycle model in which the possibility of indeterminacy of equilibria arises. In other words, agents' self-fulfilling expectations can serve as a primary impulse behind fluctuations. We find that the model, driven only by these measured sunspot shocks, can explain well the entire Depression era; that is, the decline from 1929-32, the subsequent slow recovery and the recession that occurred in 1937-38.