Fifty-six years after the introduction of affirmative action in employment in the U.S., there is a lack of consensus regarding the effect of this policy on workers’ careers (Holzerand Neumark, 2000). This paper contributes to fill this gap by building and analyzing a dataset that allows us to...

We examine global economic dynamics under learning in a New Keynesian model in which the interest-rate rule is subject to the zero lower bound. Under normal monetary and fiscal policy, the intended steady state is locally but not globally stable. Large pessimistic shocks to expectations can lead...

This paper argues that the effectiveness of fiscal policy may increase markedly during periods of low nominal interest rates and high, persistent, unemployment. An increase in government spending boosts economic activity and reduces the unemployment rate both in the present and in the future. As...

This paper models the gold standard as a state contingent commitment rule that is only feasible during peace. It shows that monetary policy during war, when the gold convertibility rule is suspended, can still be credible, if the policy maker's plan is to resume the gold standard at the old par...

This paper presents a simple model of risk-averse banks that face uncertainty over funding conditions in the money market. It shows that increased funding uncertainty: (i) creates risk-based loan-deposit synergies, (ii) often causes banks' lending volumes and their profitability to decline,...

Transparency and openness of the monetary policymaking process at the Bank of England has provided very detailed information on both the decisions of individual members of the Monetary Policy Committee and the information on which they are based. We consider this decision making process in the...

While much of the literature on cross section dependence has focused mainly on estimation of the regression coefficients in the underlying model, estimation and inferences on the magnitude and strength of spill-overs and interactions has been largely ignored. At the same time, such inferences...