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Kenneth R. Beauchemin |

Senior Research Economist

Kenneth R. Beauchemin, Senior Research Economist

Kenneth Beauchemin is a senior research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. His current research interests include labor market dynamics and advanced techniques for forecasting economic activity.

Before joining the Cleveland Reserve Bank in 2008, Dr. Beauchemin was the managing director of research at Global Insight, Inc., in Lexington, Massachusetts. Previous to that, he was an assistant professor of economics at the State University of New York at Albany, and held faculty appointments at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Beauchemin earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan.

  • Fed Publications
  • Other Publications
  • Work in Progress
Title Date Publication Author(s) Type

 

 April, 2012 Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, working paper no. 12-11 Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci; Working Papers
Abstract: We construct a multiple shock, discrete time version of the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model to investigate the basic model's well-known tendency to underpredict the volatility of key labor market variables. In addition to the standard labor productivity shock, we introduce shocks to matching efficiency and job separation. We conduct two set of experiments. First, we estimate the joint probability distribution of shocks that simultaneously satisfy the observed data and the first-order conditions of the multiple-shock model, and then simulate its properties. Although the multiple-shock model generates significantly more volatility while preserving the Beveridge curve relationship, it generates counterfactual implications for the cyclicality of job separations. Using a business cycle accounting approach, we design the second set of experiments to isolate the sources of model incompleteness and show that the model requires significant procyclical and volatile matching efficiency and counterfactually procyclical job separations to render the observed data without error. We conjecture that the basic Mortensen-Pissarides model lacks mechanisms to generate sufficiently strong labor market reallocation over the business cycle, and suggest nontrivial labor force participation and job-to-job transitions as promising avenues of research. NOTE: This is a substantial revision of working paper 08-13, which is a substantial revision of working paper 07-20.
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 October, 2011 Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, working paper no. 11-28 Kenneth Beauchemin; Saeed Zaman; Working Papers
Abstract: This paper presents a 16-variable Bayesian VAR forecasting model of the U.S. economy for use in a monetary policy setting. The variables that comprise the model are selected not only for their effectiveness in forecasting the primary variables of interest, but also for their relevance to the monetary policy process. In particular, the variables largely coincide with those of an augmented New-Keynesian DSGE model. We provide out-of sample forecast evaluations and illustrate the computation and use of predictive densities and fan charts. Although the reduced form model is the focus of the paper, we also provide an example of structural analysis to illustrate the macroeconomic response of a monetary policy shock.
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 2011-10 Kenneth Beauchemin; Economic Commentary
Abstract: The U.S. economy has recently been hit by a number of supply shocks, and businesses and consumers have seen oil, food, and materials prices rise as a result. Such shocks typically take several years to play themselves out completely. I apply a downsized version of a macroeconomic forecasting model in use at the Cleveland Fed to project the likely quantitative impact of the shocks on GDP growth and consumer prices.
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 2010-12 Kenneth Beauchemin; Economic Commentary
Abstract: There has been much talk about a disappointing recovery in the wake of the Great Recession—that this time it is much slower. Comparing features of this recovery to past recoveries casts some doubt on that view. The comparison is made using a scaled-down version of the sophisticated and powerful models that real forecasters actually use. Applying it to real GDP growth, unemployment, inflation, and the federal funds rate suggests that the recovery looks consistent with past recoveries—at least so far.
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 December 2008 Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Working Paper no. 08-13 Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci; Working Papers
Abstract: We construct a multiple-shock version of the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model to investigate the basic model’s well-known tendency to underpredict the volatility of key labor market variables. Data on U.S. job-finding and job separation probabilities are used to help estimate the parameters of a three-dimensional shock process comprising labor productivity, job separation, and matching or “allocative” effciency. Although our multiple-shock model generates some more volatility, it has counterfactual implications for the cyclicality of unemployment and vacancies. Our second exercise forces the model to be the data-generating process to uncover the necessary realizations of all three shocks. We show that the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model requires significantly procyclical and volatile matching efficiency and job separations to simultaneously account for high procyclical variations in job-finding probabilities as well as relatively small net employment changes in the data. Hence, the model is more fundamentally flawed than its inability to amplify shocks would suggest. We also show that variation in job separations accounts for most of the employment fluctuations, suggesting that endogenous separations could be the key feature of an improved model. This leads us to conclude that the model lacks mechanisms to generate procyclical matching efficiency and labor force reallocation. As for the latter, we conjecture that nontrivial labor force participation and job-to-job transitions are promising avenues of research. [NOTE: This paper is a revised version of an earlier working paper of the same title, WP 07-20, and it has been revised again as WP 12-12.
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 December, 2007 Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Working Paper no. 0720 Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci; Working Papers
Abstract: This paper constructs a multiple-shock version of the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model to investigate the basic model’s well-known tendency to under predict the volatility of key labor market variables. Data on U.S. job finding and job separation probabilities are used to help estimate the parameters of a three-dimensional shock process comprising labor productivity, job separation, and matching or “allocative” efficiency. The authors show that the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model requires significantly procyclical and volatile job separations to simultaneously account for high procyclical variations in jobfinding probabilities as well as relatively small net employment changes. Hence, the model is more fundamentally flawed than its inability to amplify shocks would suggest. This leads the authors to conclude that the model lacks mechanisms to generate procyclical matching efficiency and labor force reallocation. As for the latter, the authors conjecture that nontrivial labor force participation and job-to-job transitions are promising avenues of research. NOTE: This paper has been revised and reposted, first as WP08-13, and most recently as WP12-11.
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Title Date Publication Author(s) Type

 

 August 2012 Macroeconomic Dynamics, published online August 22, 2012 Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci; Journal Article
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Title Date Publication Author(s) Type

 

 January 2007 Unpublished manuscript Kenneth Beauchemin; Murat Tasci; Unpublished manuscript
Abstract: We construct a multiple-shock version of the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model to investigate the basic model's well-known tendency to under predict the volatility of key labor market variables. Data on U.S. job finding and job separation probabilities are used to help estimate the parameters of a three-dimensional shock process comprising labor productivity, job separation, and matching or 'allocative' efficiency. We show that the Mortensen-Pissarides labor market search model requires significantly procyclical and volatile job separations to simultaneously account for high procyclical variations in job finding probabilities as well as relatively small net employment changes. Hence, the model is more fundamentally flawed than its inability to amplify shocks would suggest. This leads us to conclude that the model lacks mechanisms to generate procyclical matching efficiency and labor force reallocation. As for the latter, we conjecture that nontrivial labor force participation and job-to-job transitions are promising avenues of research.
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