R* and Convergence

We explore the natural rate of interest, shortly r*, in emerging economies. If economic growth originates from convergence, then growth, say, from technological progress will be lower than we find in the data and, hence, r* will be lower. Ignoring convergence upwardly biases our estimates of r*. We e...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Link(s) zu Dokument(en):IHS Publikation
Hauptverfasser: Ertl, Martin, Rabitsch, Katrin
Format: IHS Series NonPeerReviewed
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:We explore the natural rate of interest, shortly r*, in emerging economies. If economic growth originates from convergence, then growth, say, from technological progress will be lower than we find in the data and, hence, r* will be lower. Ignoring convergence upwardly biases our estimates of r*. We extend the New Keynesian small open economy model to take account of convergence. The model is estimated with Bayesian techniques for four emerging economies in Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. The estimation process is informed by empirical evidence about a rapid catch-up of our example economies during the period from 2003 to 2019. We confirm the decline in r* over the last decades. When we account for capital deepening, we find meaningful differences with non-negligible implications for monetary policy.