Thursday, 4 October, 2018

14:00 | Macro Research Seminar

Marios Karabarbounis, Ph.D. (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) “Regional Consumption Responses and the Aggregate Fiscal Multiplier”

Marios Karabarbounis, Ph.D.

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, USA

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Authors: Bill Dupor, Marianna Kudlyak, Marios Karabarbounis, and M. Saif Mehkari


Abstract: We use regional variation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009-2012) to analyze the effect of government spending on consumer spending. Our consumption data come from household-level retail purchases in Nielsen and auto purchases from Equifax credit balances. We estimate that a $1 increase in county-level government spending increases consumer spending by $0.18. We translate the regional consumption responses to an aggregate fiscal multiplier using a multi-region, New Keynesian model with heterogeneous agents and incomplete markets. Our model successfully generates the estimated positive local multiplier, a result that distinguishes our incomplete markets model from models with complete markets. The aggregate consumption multiplier is 0.4, which implies an output multiplier higher than one. The aggregate consumption multiplier is almost twice the local estimate because trade linkages propagate government spending across regions.

Keywords: Consumer Spending, Fiscal Multiplier, Regional Variation, Heterogeneous Agents.

JEL Classification: E21, E62, H31, H71

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Full Text: “Regional Consumption Responses and the Aggregate Fiscal Multiplier”

 

17:30 | Economics Discovery Hub

Introduction to Python

Thursdays 17:30 - 19:00 
Starting date: 4 October 2018
Finishing date: 25 October 2018
Duration: 4 lessons
Course instructor: Pablo Maldonado

“I did not think I could learn so many new useful things in just 4 lessons. This course has been really helpful and I enjoyed every lecture. Thank you very much.”

Patricie, course participant, Fall 2017

Registration for this course is closed.

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Ever wanted to learn Python but didn’t find enough motivation from throw-away academic problems? In this course we will introduce you to Python and object oriented programming in general.

Prerequisites:

  • Some experience with scripting languages would be helpful, but not essential.
  • Basics of probability, linear algebra and calculus are recommended, to better profit from the applications we will discuss.
  • Download and install the Anaconda Python distribution (version 3.6)

Lectures:

  • Overview of the language and syntax.
  • Numpy, scipy, matplotlib essentials.
  • Object-oriented programming. 
  • Collecting information from the web: scraping.

Participants who attend at least 75% of the sessions can claim a Certificate of Attendance issued by CERGE-EI.

About the facilitator:

Pablo Maldonado
Pablo earned his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the Universite Paris VI - Pierre et Marie Curie in France.  He is currently a data science consultant and lecturer at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Previously, he worked for O2 Czech Republic and PricewaterhouseCoopers as a data scientist, and lectured in two Mexican universities. In his spare time, Pablo enjoys cooking and improving his salsa and drumming skills.

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