Why is unemployment higher for young individuals than for the old? Why are business cycle fluctuations in employment more pronounced for the young than for the old? We address these questions in the context of a search-and-matching model of the labor market that features learning about...

Why is unemployment higher for younger individuals? We address this question in a frictional model of the labor market that features learning about occupational fit. In order to learn the occupation in which they are most productive, workers sample occupations over their careers. Because young...

accounts for a significant part of this moderation.

In this paper I quantify the value of conscription as a state-contingent capital levy in the face of stochastic war-and-peace shocks. I construct a model in which the Ramsey planner is subject to a restricted set of fiscal instruments, characterize optimal policy and the role of conscription,...

We present a tractable model of state-dependent pricing and study the incentive for firms to adjust their price in response to shocks. We find a distinct asymmetry in this response. Positive shocks generate greater price flexibility (and smaller output effects) than negative shocks of the same...

In this paper we investigate the consequences of demographic change for business cycle analysis. We find that changes in the age composition of the labor force account for a significant fraction of the variation in business cycle volatility observed in the US and other G7 economies. During the...

We present a tractable, dynamic general equilibrium model of state-dependent pricing and study the response of output and prices to monetary policy shocks. We find important nonlinearities in these responses. For empirically relevant shocks, this generates substantially different predictions...

I consider the role of conscription as a fiscal shock absorber in times of war. Conscription of military personnel allows the fiscal authority to minimize wartime government expenditure, and hence, minimize tax distortions associated with war finance. I develop a simple dynamic general...

In this paper I characterize time consistent equilibrium in an economy with price rigidity and an optimizing monetary authority operating under discretion. Firms have the option to increase their frequency of price change, at a cost, in response to higher inflation. Previous studies, which...