We assess the consequences of substantially increasing the marginal tax rate on U.S. top earners using a human capital model. The top of the model Laffer curve occurs at a 53 percent top tax rate. Tax revenues and the tax rate at the top of the Laffer curve are smaller compared to an otherwise...

This paper analyzes and computes the equilibria of economies with large numbers of heterogeneous agents who have different asset trading technologies, preferences, and beliefs. We illustrate the value of our method by using it to evaluate the implications of these heterogeneities through several...

In 2005, bankruptcy laws were reformed significantly, making personal bankruptcy substantially more costly to file than before. Shortly after, the US began to experience its most severe recession in seventy years. While personal bankruptcy rates rose, they rose only modestly given the severity...

Latin America has had striking changes in economic performance over time. Following the recession and debt crises of the early 1980’s, consumption declined for about ten years and consumption per-capita in the year 2004 was roughly the same as it was in 1980. This paper studies consumption...

This paper develops an analytically tractable Bewley model of money demand to shed light on some important questions in monetary theory, such as the welfare cost of inflation. It is shown that when money is a vital form of liquidity to meet uncertain consumption needs, the welfare costs of...

In this paper we provide estimates of the coefficient of relative risk aversion for 80 countries using data on self-reports of personal well-being from the Gallup World Poll. For most countries we cannot reject the null hypothesis that the coefficient of relative risk aversion equals 1. We...

February 21, 2013. Presentation. "Perspectives on the Current Stance of Monetary Policy." NYU Stern Center for Global Economy and Business, New York, N.Y.

June 29, 2012. Presentation. "U.S. Monetary Policy: Still Appropriate." Presented at Dialogue with the Fed, Little Rock, Arkansas.

February 14, 2013. Presentation. "U.S. Monetary Policy: Easier Than You Think It Is." Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi

October 2, 2013. Opening Remarks. Given at the Federal Reserve/CSBS Community Banking Research Conference, Community Banking in the 21st Century, St. Louis