The distinguishing feature of natural-catastrophe risk is claimed to be aggregate risk. Because such risk is encompassed in the general competitive model, it seems to pose no new theoretical challenge. However, that model has markets contingent on exogenous events, while the actual economy seems...

We consider the nature of optimal cyclical monetary policy in three different stochastic models with various shocks. The first is a pure liquidity effect model, the second is a cost of changing prices model, and the third is an optimal seignorage model. In each case we solve for the optimal...

In aggregate unadjusted data, measured Solow residuals exhibit large seasonal variations. Total Factor Productivity grows rapidly in the fourth quarter at an annual rate of 16 percent and regresses sharply in the first quarter at an annual rate of ?24 percent. This paper considers two potential...

This paper is motivated by a variety of empirical observations on the comovements of currency velocity, inflation, and the relative size of the "credit services" sector. By the credit services sector we mean the part of banking and credit sector which provides alternative means of transactions...