We apply theories of capital market failure to analyze optimal financing of risky higher education. In the market solution, students can only finance their education through debt. There is underinvestment in human capital, because some students with socially profitable investments in human...

This paper uses an intertemporal, disequilibrium framework to analyze the rapid increase in personal savings that has taken place in China since 1979. A theoretical model of savings behavior under rationing is developed, and a specification of a "virtual" price index is derived. The virtual...

If nominal wages cannot fall, then positive inflation may facilitate real wage adjustment. We examine data on individuals' wage changes and find only limited evidence of such downward nominal rigidity. The shape of the distribution of wage changes is little affected by the rate of inflation....

We construct a two-period model of an open economy and use the model to analyze the welfare implications of fixed and floating exchange regimes. Consumers have perfect foresight and save by holding domestic and foreign bonds, which are chosen according to relative interest rates, deflated by the...