We study the link between timing of cash flows and expected returns in general equilibrium production economies. Standard neoclassical RBC models produce an upward-sloping term structure of equity returns. Our economy incorporates heterogeneous exposure to aggregate productivity shocks across...

In this paper, we investigate the design of optimal unemployment insurance in an environment with moral hazard and cyclical fluctuations. The optimal unemployment insurance contract balances the insurance motive to provide consumption for the unemployed with the provision of incentives to search...

This paper studies the maturity, timing and relative size of repayments for sovereign debt. Using Bloomberg bond data for emerging economies, we document that sovereigns issue debt with shorter maturity but more back-loaded repayments during downturns. To account for this pattern, we study a...

We analyze the optimal capital structure and investment strategy of banks and other financial institutions. We develop conditions under which banks optimally choose a fragile capital structure that is subject to runs. We show that when bank depositors have limited ability to commit to long-term...

The leading theories on monetary policy non-neutrality require some degree of price rigidity, which is often introduced by assuming fixed costs of price adjustment, also known as menu costs. Empirical evidence on the existence of such menu costs is scarce. Using weekly data on prices, costs and...

We construct a microfounded, dynamic version of the IS-LM-Phillips curve model by adding two elements to the money-in-the-utility-function model of Sidrauski (1967). First, real wealth enters the utility function. The resulting Euler equation describes consumption as a decreasing function of the...

International trade and the internal movement of goods and people are closely related. China – increasingly open and with massive internal migration flows – provides an ideal setting to study these interrelationships. We develop a general equilibrium model of internal and external...

We develop a dynamic nonlinear, noisy REE model of credit risk pricing un- der dispersed information that can theoretically and quantitatively account for the credit spread puzzle. The first contribution is a sharp analytical characteri- zation of the dynamic REE equilibrium and its comparative...

A dynamic multi-sector model with both net and excess mobility is developed to quantify the determinants of the canonical increasing wage-tenure profile. The model distinguishes between three potential factors: sector-specific skill accumulation, sector-specific shocks, and dynamic worker-sector...

Rehypothecation refers to the practice of reusing (selling or pledging as collateral) an asset that has already been pledged as collateral for a cash loan. In high inflation economies, rehypothecation improves economic welfare, but there is generally too much of it. We find that regulatory...