This paper provides a rational expectations equilibrium framework to organize the following observations about the U.S. housing market from 1975 to 2007: (i) housing occupancy patterns were approximately constant, (ii) rents were stable, and (iii) house prices appreciated considerably in the...

use large datasets on prices by products and stores from recent inflationary periods in Israel to compare simple menu cost models with simple uncertain and sequential trade (UST) models. The main empirical findings are (a) price erosion due to inflation explains only a tiny fraction of the...

An economy exhibits structural heterogeneity when the forecasts of different agents have different effects on the determination of aggregate variables. We study the important case of economies in which agents' behavior depends on forecasts of aggregate variables and show how different forms of...

In this paper we consider the implications of habits for optimal monetary policy, when those habits either exist at the level of the aggregate basket of consumption goods (`superficial' habits) or at the level of individual goods (`deep' habits: see Ravn, Schmitt-Grohe, and Uribe (2006))....

We estimate a New-Neoclassical Synthesis business cycle model with two investment shocks. The first, an investment-specific technology shock, affects the transformation of consumption into investment goods and is identified with the relative price of investment. The second shock affects the...

This paper estimates and simulates a sticky-price dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with a financial accelerator, a la Bernanke, Gertler, and Gilchrist (1999), to assess the importance of the financial accelerator mechanism in fitting the data and its role in the amplification and...

This paper explains market turbulence, such as the recent dot-com boom/bust cycle, as equilibrium industry dynamics driven by the synergy between new and existing technologies. When a major technological innovation arrives, a wave of new firms implement the innovation and enter the market....

The UK was depressed for 20 years between the two World Wars. The decrease in output was entirely due to lower hours per worker and lower employment. Our main finding is that generous unemployment benefits, in conjunction with large negative sectoral shocks, is the most plausible candidate...

This paper show that, first, in contradiction with the conventional view regarding the French depression, there are more similarities than differences between the French and U.S. episodes in the 1930s, which suggests the need for an explanation with a similar cause; second, technological change...

In Italy, as in many other countries, the years immediately after 1929 were characterized by a major slowdown in economic activity. We argue that the depth and duration of the crisis cannot be explained solely by productivity shocks. We present a model in which trade restrictions together with...