In this paper, we put forward a theory of the optimal capital structure of the firm based on Jensen's (1986) hypothesis that a firm's choice of capital structure is determined by a trade-off between agency costs and monitoring costs. The problem of determining the optimal capital structure of...

Three of the most important recent facts in global macroeconomics — the sustained rise in the US current account deficit, the stubborn decline in long run real rates, and the rise in the share of US assets in global portfolio — appear as anomalies from the perspective of...

This article complements the structural New-Keynesian macro framework with a no-arbitrage term structure model. Whereas our methodology is general, we focus on an extended macro-model with an unobservable time-varying markup and stochastic risk aversion. Term structure information helps to...

A number of studies show that entrepreneurial households face a large amount of unvidersifiable risk. This paper studies the effects of this risk on the relationship between uncertainty, innovation and investment dynamics. In the first part of the paper we develop a simple model of a risk averse...

Governments have traditionally financed their activities by selling nominal debt of various maturities. A long standing question concerns the optimal management of these liabilities. Many contributors have posited a role for short term nominal debt, either on cost minimization grounds or on tax...