We develop a general equilibrium monetary model of endogenous specialization and international trade to examine the degree of specialization and trade volume under alternative exchange rate regimes. Where demand shocks are important, we demonstrate an increase in specialization, trade and...

We consider independent monetary policy committees as a simple way of attaining relatively low inflation without completely sacrificing an activist role of monetary policy. If central banker's types are unknown, then for a wide range of parameters an independent monetary policy committee is...

This paper develops a new international trade model with capital market imperfections and endogenous borrowing costs in general equilibrium. Our theoretical model is motivated by new empirical patterns from enterprise survey data of the World Bank. Observing that a substantial fraction of the...

Several countries have recently introduced national capital standards exceeding the internationally coordinated Basel III rules, thus suggesting a "race to the top" in capital standards. We study regulatory competition when banks are heterogeneous and give loans to firms that produce output in...

We study how foreign competition affects the composition of investments inside firms. A parsimonious model predicts that firms have an incentive to shift their investments towards more short-term assets when exposed to tougher competition. Using data on expenditures of listed US companies into...

The lack of coordination in the resolution of multinational banks has led to demands for the increased centralization of resolution regimes. However, as this paper argues, the anticipation of resolution procedures affects the incentives of host countries to impose capital standards on their...

The relationship between asset prices and fundamentals is characterized by both disconnect and predictability: asset prices are largely disconnected from current publicly observed fundamentals and at the same time contain information about future fundamentals, even when conditioning on current...

Did policy interventions contribute to the gradual segmentation of lending markets starting with the 2007 - 2008 global financial crisis? We investigate this question in an international Cournot duopoly model under an equity constraint. Two symmetric multinational banks compete for corporate...

The "home bias" phenomenon states that empirically, economic agents often under-utilize opportunities beyond their country borders, and it is well-documented in various international pricing and purchase patterns. This bias manifests in the forms of fewer exchanges of goods and net...

The optimal escape from a liquidity trap involves generating private-sector expectations of a higher future price level and higher future inflation. This lowers the real interest rate and reduces the recession during the liquidity trap. The problem, emphasized by Krugman, is that central-bank...