In this paper, we propose a tractable variant of the open economy neoclassical growth model that emphasizes political economy and contracting frictions. The political economy frictions involve disagreement and political turnover, while the contracting friction is a lack of commitment regarding...

The recent financial crisis has been accompanied by severe contractions in economic activity and credit as well as unprecedented levels of uncertainty. This project constructs a quantitative model with default risk where an increase in dispersion leads firms to contract the size of their...

financial crisis. This paper develops a model of world trade and financial frictions to gain insights into the mechanisms by which a deterioration in financial conditions interact with countries' exports and imports. We extend the international business cycle model to a model of a continuum of...

last 30 years has been mirrored by consumption inequality. We do so by constructing two alternative measures of consumption expenditure, using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE). We first use reports of active savings and after tax income to construct the measure of consumption...