We quantify the effect of financial leverage on stock return volatility in a dynamic general equilibrium economy with debt and equity claims. We study the effects of financial leverage on the market portfolio, and on a small firm with idiosyncratic and market risk. In an economy with both a...

This paper solves the pricing problem of an merging market debt contract in which the borrower’s economy is subject to rare event risk. Our model combines elements of a reduced form and a structural model of debt pricing. Rare event risk is modeled as a sudden event in fundamentals, and...

Asset pricing implications for business cycle analysis David Backus, Bryan Routledge, and Stanley Zin Although the stochastic growth model has become the benchmark for business cycle analysis, many of its implications for asset prices and returns are grossly counterfactual. For example, the...