In the context of a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations and intergenerational altruism we show that, ceteris paribus, a decrease in taxes on inter vivos donations and bequests brings about an increase in real estate prices. This result has relevant policy implications. We test...

Taxation of bequests and donations is an important determinant of real estate prices. We show that, ceteris paribus, a decrease in taxes on inter vivos donations and bequests brings about an increase in real estate prices. We provide a general equilibrium rationalization in the context of OLG...

The existence of collateral requirements to guarantee repayment on issued securities reduces in general the efficiency of competitive equilibria. The general equilibrium analysis is presented in a world where reputation plays no role, and the lender always expects a future payment equal to the...

A small number of countries have issued real indexed sovereign debt in recent year. This type of contracts could improve risk sharing between debtor countries and international creditors and diminish the probability of occurrence of debt crises. However, it is not clear the magnitude of these...

Introducing heterogeneity of beliefs across different agents builds a link between wealth distribution and the equity premium. We demonstrate that an economy populated only by risk neutral agents may nonetheless display a strictly positive equity premium. We then place our notion of belief...

the state of the economy, they also feature thresholds of the chosen real variable that trigger payments. We argue that the latter are typically suboptimal.

The financial crisis of 2007-08 has underscored the importance of adverse selection in financial markets. This friction has been mostly neglected by macroeconomic models of financial imperfections, however, which have focused almost exclusively on limited pledgeability. We fill this gap by...

The financial crisis of 2007-08 has underscored the importance of adverse selection in financial markets. This friction has been mostly neglected by macroeconomic models of financial imperfections, however, which have focused almost exclusively on the effects of limited pledgeability. In this...

A number of countries have issued sovereign debt instruments indexed to real variables in recent years. This type of contracts could improve risk sharing between debtor countries and international creditors and diminish the probability of occurrence of debt crises. This paper characterizes the...