This paper characterizes optimal fiscal and monetary policy in a new keynesian model with sectorial heterogeneity in price stickiness. In particular, we (i) derive a purely quadratic welfare-based loss function from an approximation of the representative agent's utility function and (ii) provide...

What measure of inflation a Central Bank should respond to? This paper characterizes the optimal targeting index in a multisectorial economy with Calvo-pricing, defined as a composition of sectorial inflations that maximizes a selected welfare criterion. This is a purely quadratic approximation...

This paper incorporates Rational Inattention as defined by Sims (2003a) to a traditional RBC model with multiple sources of uncertainty. Our model distinguishes between transitory and permanent labor and relative investment productivity shocks. The introduction of information frictions works as...

This paper introduces cash transfers targeting the poor in an incomplete markets model with heterogeneous agents facing idiosyncratic risk. These transfers change the degree of insurance in the economy and aect precautionary motives asymmetrically, leading the poorest households to decrease...

We use an identified factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) to estimate the impact of monetary policy shocks on the cross-section of stock returns. Our FAVAR combines unobserved factors extracted from a large set of financial and macroeconomic indicators with the Federal Funds rate. We...

This paper introduces cash transfers targeting the poor in an incomplete marketsmodel with heterogeneous agents facing idiosyncratic risk. These transfers change the degree of insurance in the economy and affect precautionary motives asymmetrically,leading the poorest households to decrease...

We introduce a fiscally independent central bank with balance sheet concerns in the new Keynesian model. The central bank is subject to a budget constraint and state-contingent transfers from the treasury are not allowed. This change renders the standard optimal monetary policy solution non...

In explaining economic phenomena, economic analysis concentrates on selected influences and fixes the host of other factors under a ceteris paribus clause. This view, which goes back to Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), is developed in the first part of the book. Aggregation is viewed as a particular...

Life annuities provide a guaranteed income for the remainder of the recipient’s lifetime, and therefore, annuitization presents an important option when choosing an adequate investment strategy for the retirement ages. While there are numerous research articles studying annuities from a...

Even 50 years after Modigliani/Miller’s irrelevance theorem, the basic question of how firms choose their capital structure remains unclear. This survey paper aims at summarizing and discussing corresponding recent developments in empirical capital structure research, which, in our view, are...