We study an overlapping-generations economy in which new agents innovate and introduce new products and firms. Innovation is stochastic. The new firms increase overall productivity, but also steal business from pre-existing firms and act as depreciation shocks for the human capital of existing...

The termination of a representative financial firm due to excess leverage may lead to substantial bankruptcy costs. A benevolent government in the tradition of Ramsey (1927) may be inclined to provide transfers to the firm so as to prevent its liquidation and the associated deadweight costs. The...