This paper studies the implications of procyclical capital utilization rates for inference regarding cyclical movements in labor productivity and the degree of returns to scale. We organize our investigation around five questions that we study using a measure of capital services based on...

This paper explores the role played by government guarantees to banks’ foreigncreditors as a root cause of self-fulfilling twin banking-currency crises. We developa general equilibrium model in which such guarantees lead to these types of crises.Absent government guarantees, such crises are...

This paper argues that the recen Southeast Asian currency crisis was caused by large prospective deficits associated with implicit bailout guarantees to failing banking systems. We articulate this view using a simple dynamic general equilibrium model whose key feature is that a speculativ attack...

This paper analyzes the role of variable capital utilization rates in propagating shocks over the business cycle. To this end we formulate and estimate an equilibrium business cycle model in which cyclical capital utilization rates are viewed as a form of factor hoarding. We find that variable...

This paper investigates the response of hours worked and real wages to fiscal policy shocks in the U.S. during the post World War II era. We identify these shocks with exogenous changes in military purchases and argue that they lead to a persistent increase in government purchases and tax rates...

I would like to preface my remarks by saying that I enjoyed reading this paper, which deals with a subject I knew too little about, but on which I now feel reasonably informed. The author has succeeded in writing down a model which to some degree captures the essence of three of the leading...

Burnside and Dollar revisit the relationship between aid and growth using a new data set focusing on the 1990s. The evidence supports the view that the impact of aid depends on the quality of state institutions and policies. The authors use an overall measure of institutions and policies popular...

This dissertation consists of two chapters on international business cycles. In the first chapter, I revisit the problem of the anomaly of terms of trade dynamics. First, I empirically analyze the effect of a US aggregate labor productivity shock on the US terms of trade using a Vector...

This dissertation consists of two essays in international macroeconomics. Thefirst essay shows that optimal fiscal and monetary policy is time consistent in astandard small open economy. Further, there exist many maturity structuresof public debt capable of rendering the optimal policy time...