Abstract
Lucas (1976, p. 41) proposes an explanation for why coefficients in econometric equations might be nonconstant when policy rules change: “[G]iven that the structure of an econometric model consists of optimal decision rules of economic agents, and that optimal decision rules vary systematically with changes in the structure of series relevant to the decision maker, it follows that any change in policy will systematically alter the structure of econometric models.” Lucas’s critique of econometric models focuses on how parameters in policy rules may enter parametrically into economic agents’ optimization rules. Lucas (1976) considers examples where agents’expectationsof policy behavior enter into their optimization problem, and so parameters relating to policymakers’ rules appear in the agents’ first-order conditions. In essence, the issue is whether an econometric model isolates “invariants” of the economic process. Such invariance or autonomy is a topic with a lengthy and contentious history in the econometrics literature: see Haavelmo (1944) and Frisch (1948) for early discussions and Aldrich (1989) for an extensive historical perspective.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baba, Yoshihisa, David F. Hendry, and Ross M. Starr. (1992). “The Demand for M1 in the U.S.A., 1960–1988. ” Review of Economic Studies 59, 26–61.
Cooley, Thomas F., Stephen LeRoy, and Neil Raymon. (1984). “Econometric Policy Evaluation: Note.”American Economic Review74, 467–70.
Friedman, Milton. (1968). “The Role of Monetary Policy.”American Economic Review58, 1–17.
Goldfeld, Stephen. (1976). “The Case of the Missing Money.”Brookings Papers on Economic Activity3, 683–730.
Gordon, David B., and Eric M. Leeper. (1995). “A Growth Model of Private Transactions and Velocity.” Manuscript, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, February.
Hendry, David F. (1988). `The Encompassing Implications of Feedback Versus Feedforward Mechanisms in Econometrics.“Oxford Economic Papers40, 132–149.
Hess, Gregory D., Christopher S. Jones, and Richard D. Porter. (1994). “The Predictive Failure of the Baba, Hendry, and Starr Model of the Demand for M1 in the United States.”Finance and Economics Discussion Series No. 94--34Federal Reserve Board, November.
Hoover, Kevin D. (1991). “The Causal Direction Between Money and Prices: An Alternative Approach.”Journal of Monetary Economics27, 381–324.
Hurwicz, Leonid. (1962). “On the Structural Form of Interdependent Systems.” In Ernest Nagel, Patrick Suppes, and Alfred Tarski (eds.)Logic and Methodology in the Social Sciences(pp. 232–239). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Koopmans, Tjalling C., and Augustus F. Bausch. (1959). “Selected Topics in Economics Involving Mathematical Reasoning.”SIAM Review1, 138–148.
Kydland, Finn, and Edward C. Prescott. (1982). “Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations.”Econometrica50, 1345–1370.
Lucas, Robert E., Jr. (1976). “Econometric Policy Evaluation: A Critique.” In Karl Brunner and Allan H. Meltzer (eds.)The Phillips Curve and Labor Markets Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy. Vol. 1Journal of Monetary Economicssupplementary issue, 19–46.
Lucas, Robert E., Jr. (1988). “Money Demand in the United States: A Quantitative Review.” In Karl Brunner and Bennett T, McCallum (eds.)Money Cycles and Exchange Rates: Essays in Honor of Allan H. Meltzer Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy (Vol. 29) (pp, 137–168). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Marschak, Jacob. (1953). “Econometric Measurements for Policy and Prediction.” In William C. Hood and Tjalling C. Koopmans (eds.)Studies in Econometric Methods(pp. 1–26). New York: Wiley.
McCallum, Bennett T. (1989).Monetary Economics: Theory and Policy.New York: Macmillan.
Miller, Preston J., and William T. Roberds. (1991). “The Quantitative Significance of the Lucas Critique.”Journal of Business and Economic Statistics9, 361–387.
Neftçi, Salih, and Thomas J. Sargent. (1978). “A Little Bit of Evidence on the Natural Rate Hypothesis for the U.S.”Journal of Monetary Economics4, 315–319.
Phelps, Edmund S. et al. (1970).Microeconomic Foundations of Employment and Inflation Theory.New York: Norton.
Sargent, Thomas J. (1984). “Vector Autoregressions, Expectations, and Advice. ”American Economic Review 74, 408–415.
Sims, Christopher A. (1980). “Macroeconomics and Reality.”Econometrica48, 1–48.
Sims, Christopher A. (1986). “Are Forecasting Models Usable for Policy Analysis?” Quarterly Review (Federal Reserve Bank) Winter, 2–16.
Sims, Christopher A. (1987). “A Rational Expectations Framework for Short-Run Policy Analysis.” In William A. Barnett and Kenneth J. Singleton (eds.)New Approaches to Monetary Economics(pp. 293–308). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ericsson, N.R., Irons, J.S. (1995). The Lucas Critique in Practice. In: Hoover, K.D. (eds) Macroeconometrics. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 46. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0669-6_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0669-6_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4293-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0669-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive