In most manufacturing industries plant-level output is adjusted along three margins of capacity utilization: shiftwork, weekend work, and closing temporarily down. Due to the discrete and lumpy nature of these margins, only a fraction of plants adjust output in response to shocks. In a business...

Fluctuations in nominal variables—aggregate price levels and nominal interest rates—are documented to be substantially more synchronized across countries at business cycle frequencies than fluctuations in real output. A transparent mechanism accounting for this striking feature of the...

A monetary aggregate consisting predominantly of zero-maturity deposits, called MZM, tends to systematically lead output in the US business cycle. Such fluctuations are observed both before and after the 1979 monetary policy change. Similar dynamics are obtained in a model with multi-stage...