In this paper, we construct a simple model based on heterogeneity in workers' productivity and homogeneity in their working schedules. This simple model can generate unemployment, even if wages adjust instantaneously, firms are perfectly competitive, and firms can perfectly observe workers'...

In this paper, we construct a simple model based on heterogeneity in workers¡¯ productivity and homogeneity in their working schedules. This simple model can generate unemployment, even if wages adjust instantaneously, firms are perfectly competitive, and firms can perfectly observe...

Using a rational expectations model of profit maximizing firms facing demand uncertainty, this paper derives a closed-form relationship between the optimal volume of labor hoarding and other important economic variables such as profit, expected demand, interest rate, inventory level, output...

Why is there inventory investment when its expected rate of return is strictly dominated by that of fixed-capital investment? Why is inventory investment procyclical at business-cycle frequencies but countercyclical at the very high frequencies (e.g., 2-3 quarters per cycle)? Why does the...

In this paper we show that the highly persistent inflation dynamics and its lead-lag relationship with output can be explained by a standard flexible price RBC model augmented with endogenous monetary policy. Endogenous monetary policy acting upon the illusion that price is sticky and money is...

Conventional wisdom emphasizes supply and demand shocks as the major sources of the business cycle. Yet the most visible, most synchronized, and most frequently encountered supply and demand shocks take place at the seasons. The central question to be addressed in this paper is to what extent...

Necessary conditions for indeterminacy in standard RBC models have been extensively studied, but intuitive understanding of the economic mechanism that generates indeterminacy has yet to be fully explored. Following the permanent income theory, this paper provides an alternative framework for...

This paper investigates the behavior of short-term real and nominal rates of interest by combining consumption-based and production-based models into a single general equilibrium framework. Based on the theoretical nonlinear relationships that link interest rates to both the marginal rates of...

Due to lack of models that can feature both output- and input-inventories simultaneously, several well known puzzles pertaining to inventory fluctuations and the business cycle have not been well explained by dynamic optimization theory. By presenting a general equilibrium, multi-stage...

The neoclassical effects of permanent technology shocks on employment is re-investigated. Contrary to Jordi Gali's (1999) assertion published in this Review, I show that standard neoclassical theory is fully capable of explaining the stylized fact that positive permanent technology shocks reduce...