In this paper, we present a tractable model of a small open economy where the main driver of international borrowing is investment. Debt is non-state-contingent and the choice of default is endogenous, as in Eaton and Gersovitz (1981). By introducing a simple AK technology, we obtain a setup...

n this paper we first use the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth to document how various household choices (including consumption and wealth) change in response to an income change. We show that these responses are not consistent with simple benchmark models (i.e. complete markets or...

The majority of OECD countries has experienced a reduction in macroeconomic volatility during the last two decades. This period is also characterized by a gradual liberalization of the capital accounts in these countries. We first show that, on average, countries/periods with more open capital...