I develop and simulate an equilibrium model of search with endogenous savings and search intensity. The wage offer distribution is endogenized by firms making vacancy and entry choices. This allows me to conduct a counterfactual analysis of the optimal unemployment insurance (UI) level. The...

This paper considers optimal investment behaviour when investment options evolve deterministically or stochastically over time and investments are irreversible and indivisible. It extends the standard investment-under-uncertainty set-up with a single investment option to the case of repeated...

A dynamic model of agricultural household behaviour in less developed countries in the presence of credit constraints and income uncertainty is developed. The production side of the model takes into account the irreversible and indivisible nature of non-stationary agricultural investment...

We examine US housing price forecastability using a common factor approach based on a large panel of 122 economic time series. We find that a simple three-factor model generates an explanatory power of about 50% in one-quarter ahead in-sample forecasting regressions. The predictive power of the...

This paper presents a dynamic factor model in which the extracted factors and shocks are given a clear economic interpretation. The economic interpretation of the factors is obtained by means of a set of over-identifying loading restrictions, while the structural shocks are estimated following...

This paper presents an empirically testable two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model for the United States economy that admits technology and non-technology shocks. Long-run identification restrictions further distinguish the impact of each shocks over the originating sector (i.e. as a...

Economy-wide effects of shocks to the US federal funds rate are estimated in a state space model with 120 US macroeconomic and financial time series driven by the dynamics of the federal funds rate and a few dynamic factors. This state space system is denoted a factor-augmented VAR (FAVAR) by...

The financial crisis raises demands for fiscal policy interventions. While a fall in aggregate demand is an important consequence of the crisis, it also reflects more underlying structural problems and changes. Hence, appropriate policy designs have to take account of the nature of the crisis...

Regular use of effective health-products such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITN) by a household benefits its neighbors by (a) reducing chances of infection and (b) raising awareness about product-effectiveness, thereby increasing product-use. Due to their potential social benefits and...

Becker’s theory of taste-based discrimination predicts that relative employment of the discriminated social group will improve if there is a decrease in the level of prejudice for the marginally discriminating employer. In this paper we experimentally test this prediction offered by Becker...