The basic machines of macroeconomics. Ramsey, Solow, Samuelson-Diamond, RBCs, ISLM, Mundell-Fleming, Fischer-Taylor. How they work, what shortcuts they take, and how they can be used. Half-term subject. From the course home page: Course Description This is the second course in the four-quarter...

This paper aims to conduct a precise test of the political economy hypothesis linking income inequality and economic growth. By choosing covariates from a detailed county-level dataset and assuming that U.S. counties experience perfect capital mobility, I shut off the four possible channels...

Chapters one and two of the dissertation investigate the effects of political disagreement on macroeconomic outcomes. I introduce a model of governments with heterogeneous preferences over the composition of consumption between private and public goods alternating in power. Unable to commit to...

The focus of my research is dynamic political economy in macroeconomics. The first chapter of my dissertation studies the fact that Countries in the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) vary widely in their ratio of capital tax rates to labor tax rates. This chapter’s...

“The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.” – Aldous HuxleyAldous Huxley perfectly captures the elusive nature of how difficult it is to analyze history to gain insight to the present...

We build up from the plant level an “aggregate(d)” Solow residual by estimating every U.S. manufacturing plant's contribution to the change in aggregate final demand between 1976 and 1996. Our framework uses the Petrin and Levinsohn (2010) definition of aggregate productivity growth, which...

The role played by financial intermediaries and banks in modern economies is undeniably critical. However, explaining their importance in a theoretical general equilibrium framework presents some challenges. If firms and households have unrestricted access to complete financial markets, then at...

Surveys theories of regional growth, factor mobility, clustering, industrial restructuring, learning regions, and global supply chains from a political-economy perspective. Examines/critiques accounting frameworks including accounting for the underground economy, multipliers, linkages, and...

Surveys theories of regional growth, factor mobility, clustering, industrial restructuring, learning regions, and global supply chains from a political-economy perspective. Examines/critiques accounting frameworks including accounting for the underground economy, multipliers, linkages, and...

Uses the tools of macroeconomics to study three macroeconomic policy problems in depth. Possible topics include long-run economic growth, the macroeconomics of the transition to a modern capitalist society, federal government surpluses and deficits, Social Security, the distribution of earnings...