The Great Recession of 2008 offers a primary example of the important role that fluctuations in credit risk play in the aggregate economy. In this paper we explore this link with a tractable general equilibrium asset pricing model with heterogeneous firms. Our model produces realistic movements...

We develop a tractable general equilibrium model that captures the interplay between nominal long-term corporate debt, inflation, and real aggregates. We show that unanticipated inflation changes the real burden of debt and, more significantly, leads to a debt overhang that distorts future...