This paper shows that uninsured risk and borrowing constraints can make an individual's marginal propensity to consume negatively dependent on his/her permanent income. Therefore, higher income growth can lead to higher saving rates without requiring (or causing) high interest rates – in sharp...

This paper provides the most fully comprehensive evidence to date on whether or not monetary aggregates are valuable for forecasting US inflation in the early to mid 2000s. We explore a wide range of different definitions of money, including different methods of aggregation and different...

This paper develops a framework for inferring common Markov-switching components in a panel data set with large cross-section and time-series dimensions. We apply the framework to studying similarities and differences across U.S. states in the timing of business cycles. We hypothesize that there...

In February 2005, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan referred to the decline in long-term rates in the wake of the Fed increasing the target for the federal funds rate by 150 basis points as a ldquo;conundrum.rdquo; Greenspan's remarks generated considerable interest and research. I document that the...

In this paper we study the determinants of banks' decision to adopt a transactional web-site for their customers. Using a panel of commercial banks in the United States for the period 2003-2006, we show that although bank-specific characteristics are important determinants of banks' adoption...

Consistent with the post-1962 U.S. evidence by Ang, Hodrick, Xing, and Zhang [Ang, A., Hodrick, R., Xing Y., Zhang, X., 2006. The cross-section of volatility and expected returns. Journal of Finance 51, 259-299.], we find that stocks with high idiosyncratic variance (IV) have low CAPM-adjusted...

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, speculation arose that the Federal Reserve might respond by easing monetary policy. This paper uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model to investigate the appropriate monetary policy response to a natural disaster. We show that...

The objective of this paper is to study optimal fiscal and monetary policy in a dynamic Mirrlees model where the frictions giving rise to money as a medium of exchange are explicitly modeled. The framework is a three period OLG model where agents are born every other period. The young and old...

We construct a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to study optimal monetary stabilization policy. Prices are fully flexible and money is essential for trade. Our main result is that if the central bank pursues a price-level target, it can control inflation expectations and improve...

Monetary policy has significant but overlooked effects on entry and exit of firms. We study optimal monetary stabilization policy in a DSGE model with microfounded money demand and endogenous firm entry. Due to a congestion externality affecting firm entry, the optimal policy deviates from the...