This review article tries to answer four questions: (i) what are the stylized facts about uncertainty over time; (ii) why does uncertainty vary; (iii) do fluctuations in uncertainty matter; and (iv) did higher uncertainty worsen the Great Recession of 2007-2009? On the first question both macro...

This review article tries to answer four questions: (i) what are the stylized facts about uncertainty over time; (ii) why does uncertainty vary; (iii) do fluctuations in uncertainty matter; and (iv) did higher uncertainty worsen the Great Recession of 2007-2009? On the first question both macro...

We develop a model in which innovations in an economy's growth potential are an important driving force of the business cycle. The framework shares the emphasis of the recent new shock literature on revisions of beliefs about the future as a source of fluctuations, but differs by tying these...

Most countries in the world are not at the technological frontier, yet their economies grow and fluctuate. This paper sets up a quantitative model of endogenous growth with business cycle fluctuations to analyze the medium frequency fluctuations in non-frontier countries. The growth mechanism is...

The macroeconomic experience of the last decade stressed the importance of jointly studying the growth and business cycle fluctuations behavior of the economy. To analyze this issue, we embed a model of Schumpeterian growth into an estimated medium-scale DSGE model. Results from a Bayesian...

Why did the Great Recession lead to such a slow recovery? I build a model where heterogeneous firms invest in physical and in intangible capital, and can default on their debt. In case of default, intangible assets tend to be harder to seize by external investors. Hence, financing intangible...

Italian Abstract: Il lavoro analizza l'evoluzione recente delle economie del Nord Ovest italiano, concentrandosi sui fenomeni della deindustrializzazione e della terziarizzazione dell'economia. Dal confronto con un gruppo di regioni europee definibili come “industriali avanzate”, emerge come...

We analyze the adoption of green technology in a dynamic economy affected by random shocks where demand spillovers are the main driver of technological improvements. Firms' beliefs and consumers' anticipations drive the path of the economy. We derive the optimal policy of investment subsidy and...

In this paper I study how debt and housing affect the trend of a closed economy. I build and estimate a DSGE model with endogenous growth and with heterogeneous agents, savers and borrowers. I find that in response to an increase in the nominal collateral value, savers decrease their investments...

We investigate the effect of income distribution on R&D in a dynamic framework. Our model captures both the infinite R&D race among heterogeneous innovators and a market where successful innovators generate revenues. The market structure of successful innovations is endogenous – firms produce...