The recent financial crisis has highlighted the key role of leveraged financial institutions as liquidity providers. We incorporate leveraged financial institutions into a dynamic general equilibrium portfolio choice model in order to analyze the dynamics of risk, leverage, liquidity and asset...

In an influential contribution that predates the recent renewed interest in portfolio choice models of international capital flows, Kraay and Ventura (2000) o¤er a "new rule" for the current account that puts portfolio choice at the center of the analysis. The new rule says that in response to...

A narrowing of the U.S. current account deficit through exchange rate movements is likely to entail a substantial depreciation of the dollar, as stressed in research by Obstfeld and Rogoff. We assess how the adjustment is affected by the high degree of financial integration in the world economy....

Since the mid-1980s, unemployment rates in Ireland and the Netherlands have plummeted, while the average rate for the European Union has maintained its longtime high level. Ambitious labor market reforms_including wage moderation and the tightening of unemployment benefits_have helped to bring...

The paper studies the differential impact of exchange rate fluctuations on households in a country. I extend earlier research by relaxing the assumption of complete international sectoral specialization. My setup allows for the presence of several different sectors in a given country, each...

Two theories of the causes of currency crises prevail in the economic literature. The first traces currency instability to countries' structural imbalances and weak policies; the second identifies arbitrary shifts in market expectations as the principal source of instability. The authors of this...

The paper explores the optimal monetary policy reaction to productivity shocks in an open economy. Whereas earlier studies assume that countries specialize in producing particular goods, I enrich the analysis by allowing for incomplete specialization. I confirm the finding of Obstfeld and Rogoff...