We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A key feature is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using detailed US...

This paper shows that search in the labor market has important effects on accumulation decisions. In a labor market characterized by search, employment contracts are naturally incomplete and this creates a wedge between the rates of return and marginal products of both human and physical...

This paper develops a framework to analyze the relationship between the diffusion of new technologies and the decentralization decisions of firms. Centralized control relies on the information of the principal, which we equate with publicly available information. Decentralized control, on the...

Why would an entrepreneur hire a manager? It could be because managers are particularly talented people. This paper suggests another reason. We consider a model with asymmetric information between financiers and entrepreneurs which gives rise to sizable inefficiencies. Under simple conditions,...

A competitive business cycle model is developed in which internal increasing returns translate a white noise random shock into temporarily agglomerated economic activity. Te qualitative nature of the economy varies over the cycle due to changes in the underlying economic structure, giving rise...

Most managers enjoy considerable discretion and protection from possible interventions which enables them to look after their own interests. This is often attributed to the dispersion of shareholders and regulations that deter effective outside interventions. This paper presents a model that has...

Consumer confidence is found to have predictive content for a wide range of macroeconomic variables including consumption growth, contrary to standard REPIH. We find that on UK data the REPIH is rejected due to the predictive content of consumer confidence, and not labour income. We explain this...

This paper considers a model in which the unemployed have to incur a cost to maintain their skills. If whether they have done so is not observable, the economy has multiple equilibrium supported by self-fulfilling beliefs on the part of the employers. There is a unique steady state equilibrium...

Why would two risk-average agents write a nominal contract? A possible answer is that for an agent who is subject to risks caused by price variability, a nominal contract that offers hedging against these risks may be optimal. This paper argues that nominal contracts may have a role in...

A General Equilibrium model of investment is constructed in which the pay-offs of firms depend on each other's actions. It is shown that when these actions are unobservable but aggregate output is in the information set of the agents; it acts as a signal. The implication is that output will lead...