The tax and transfer system partially insures households against individual income risk. We build a framework to assess the size and (welfare) value of this partial insurance, which is based on exploiting distributional differences between household gross income and disposable income. Our...

The literature on derivative pricing in illiquid markets has mostly focused on computing optimal hedging controls, but empirical microstructure studies show that large order flow generates persistent and predictable price effects. Therefore, these controls can themselves induce endogenous market...

This paper studies household consumption behavior when saving motives differ due to preference or income risk heterogeneity. I show that self-insurance operates along two margins: a standard liquidity margin determined by the level of current resources and an intertemporal margin governed by...

Since the late 1980s, extreme poverty has declined sharply, life expectancy and schooling have increased, and electoral democracy has expanded. However poverty reduction has slowed in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, amid intensifying conflict, fragility, climate...

In recent decades, the United States has experienced a notable rise in markups, a slowdown in productivity growth, and an increase in wealth inequality. We present a framework that unifies these trends into a common driving force. In particular, increased barriers to entry raise markups and...

We explore to what extent real returns on investment portfolios can be hedged against inflation risk by using existing financial market instruments. We find that inflation-linked bonds offer only limited protection against inflation risk and that nominal debt and stocks play at least comparable...

We study the effects of movements in aggregate lending standards on macroeconomic aggregates and inequality. We show in a New Keynesian model with heterogeneous households and housing that a looser loan-to-value (LTV) ratio stimulates housing demand, nondurable consumption, and output. Our model...

We study the effects of movements in aggregate lending standards on macroeconomic aggregates and inequality. We show in a New Keynesian model with heterogeneous households and housing that a looser loan-to-value (LTV) ratio stimulates housing demand, nondurable consumption, and output. Our model...

I study the transmission mechanism of Quantitative Easing (QE) in the form of large-scale asset purchases in the mortgage market to aggregate consumption. To this end, I develop a New Keynesian model that features heterogeneous households, a microfounded housing market, and frictional...

This paper demonstrates that perfectly calibrating a multi-asset model to observed market prices of all basket call options is insufficient to uniquely determine the price of a best-of call option. Previous research on multi-asset option pricing has primarily focused on complete market settings...

We examine the role of government investment in defense capital as a deterrence tool. Using an optimal fiscal policy framework with endogenous disaster risk, we allow for an endogenous determination of geopolitical risk and defense capacity, which we discipline using the Geopolitical Risk Index....

We argue that capital misallocation arises endogenously due to incomplete consumption insurance. We model risk-averse entrepreneurs with heterogeneous productivity who face idiosyncratic output shocks and choose how much capital to rent before uncertainty unfolds. We show that incomplete markets...

During the Covid-19 crisis, most OECD countries used short-time work (subsidized reductions in working hours) to preserve employment. This paper documents that short-time work affects the behavior of firms (supply) and households (demand). First, using household survey data from Germany, we show...

Prepaid electricity contracts lower enforcement costs but may burden consumers, particularly when market frictions are present. This paper presents the results of a randomized control trial where 2,000 randomly selected, rural Rwandese consumers were offered a line of credit for electricity...

We propose a framework for institutional change in the 'rules-in-equilibrium' tradition and introduce the term institutional incompleteness. Institutions are incomplete when their constituent rules fail to induce behavioural beliefs about the strategies of others and hence fail to achieve an...