Investment-specific technological progress as reflected by the decline in the relative price of U.S. capital goods has substantially contributed to U.S. postwar growth. Imports of capital goods have represented an increasing share of U.S. equipment investment, and their price relative to U.S....

We develop two measures of exogenous oil-price shocks for the period 1984 to 2006 based on market commentaries on daily oil-price fluctuations. Our measures are based on exogenous events that trigger substantial fluctuations in spot oil prices and are constructed to be free of endogenous and...

Currency crises are usually associated with large real depreciations. In some countries real depreciations are perceived to be very costly("fear of floating"). In this paper we try to understand the reasons behind this fear. We first look at episodes of currency crises in the '90s and establish...

Currency crises are usually associated with large real depreciations. In some countries real depreciations are perceived to be very costly(''fear of floating''). In this paper we try to understand the reasons behind this fear. We first look at episodes of currency crises in the '90s and...

We study the effects of oil-price shocks on the U.S economy combining narrative and quantitative approaches. After examining daily oil-related events since 1984, we classify them into various event types. We then develop measures of exogenous shocks that avoid endogeneity and predictability...

Recent debate about the pro-cyclical effects of bank capital requirements, has ignored the important role that bank loan loss provisions play in the overall framework of minimum capital regulation. It is frequently observed that under-provisioning, due to inadequate assessment of expected credit...

Over the last 40 years, an increasing share of U.S. aggregate E&S investment expenditure has been allocated to capital-goods imports. While capital-goods imports were only 3.5 percent of E&S investment in 1967, by 2008 their share had risen tenfold to 36 percent. The goal of this paper is to...