Between 1988 and 2002, the real exchange rate in Mexico appreciated by 45%. We account for this movement in relative prices using a two sector, dynamic general equilibrium model of a small open economy with tradable an non-tradable goods. The model allows us to identify the effect of the...

We build a partial equilibrium model of firm dynamics under exchange rate uncertainty. Firms face idiosyncratic productivity shocks and observe the current level of the real exchange rate each period. Given their current level of capital stock, firms make their export decisions and choose how...

Financial crises in emerging economies are accompanied by a large fall in total factor productivity. We explore the role of financial frictions in exacerbating the misallocation of resources and explaining this drop in TFP. We build a two-sector model of a small open economy with a working...

We study the relation between misallocation of resources, TFP and credit conditions using sectoral data from Mexican manufacturing industries between 2003 and 2010. We use a theory-based framework to account for TFP changes in the Mexican manufacturing sector due to changes in distortions in the...

Motivated by the fact that, over the business cycle, labor dynamics in emerging economies differ in nontrivial ways from those observed in developed economies, we assess the relative importance of trend shocks in emerging economies in the business cycle model of Aguiar and Gopinath (2007) when...

We test for the presence of market discipline in the banking sector in early 20th century Mexico. Using a panel of financial data from note-issuing banks between 1905 and 1910, we examine whether bank fundamentals influenced the pattern of withdrawals. If we do not control for exit, our...

In this paper, I explain two "puzzles" which have been observed in firm level data. (1) Firms which display a high sensitivity of investment to cash flow (commonly believed to be an indicator of liquidity constraints) usually have large unutilized lines of credit which, presumably, could be used...

We use Mexican firm-level data to study the role of currency mismatches in exacerbating the negative effects of a devaluation in the corporate sector and to investigate what drives Mexican firms to borrow in foreign currency. Our results show that large firms and exporters tend to borrow more...

In the last two decades, the Peruvian economy exhibited rapid growth. Moreover, the composition of the labor force improved in terms of education and experience, two variables which are typically associated to higher human capital. The average worker in 2012 had a higher level of education and...

Recent empirical studies show that the intergenerational persistence of economic status in the U.S. is much higher than previously thought. We develop a quantitative theory of inequality and intergenerational transmission of human capital where parents invest in early and college education of...