Volatility, growth, and large welfare gains from stabilization policies

"This paper proposes a simple endogenous-fluctuations growth model to show: (1) long-run growth and short-run fluctuations can be intimately linked; in particular, the rate of long run growth can be negatively affected by volatilities; (2) imperfect competition can cause endogenous fluctuations, and it reduces not only the level of output but also its mean growth rate by amplifying the volatility of the economy; and (3) the welfare gain of stabilization policy can be enormous (e.g., as high as 25% of annual consumption when calibrated to the U.S. data) because policies designed to reduce sunspots-driven fluctuations can generate permanently higher rates of growth"--Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis web site.