Over the last 20 years the U.S. economy has experienced a strong reduction in the volatility of GDP growth. This paper documents and models the rapid growth of multinational corporations as a source of gradual decline in output and investment volatility. The paper introduces internationally...

Since the mid-1980s firm level financial volatility has increased, while the U.S. economy has experienced a sharp decline in the volatility of GDP growth. Do firms adjust their capital structure in response to higher idiosyncratic risk? And if so, could that affect the performance of the...

This paper studies the effect of trade liberalization on inequality. We develop a theoretical framework that generates economy-wide distributions of wealth and income for different levels of trade protection. The model unambiguously determines the effect of liberalization on inequality; and...