This paper explores the macroeconomic and welfare implications of the sharp rise in U.S. wage inequality (1967-1996). In the data, cross-sectional earnings variation increased substantially more than wage variation, due to a sharp rise in the wage-hour correlation. At the same time, inequality...

I undertake a quantitative investigation into the short run effects of changes in the timing of proportional income taxes for model economies in which heterogeneous households face a borrowing constraint. Temporary tax changes are found to have large real effects. In the benchmark model, a...

In the United States, the percentage standard deviation of residential investment is more than twice that of non-residential investment. GDP, consumption, and both types of investment all co-move positively. At the industry level, output and hours worked in construction are more than three times...

Over the period 1972-1986, the U.S. business cycle was strongly correlated with the business cycle in the rest of the industrialized world. Over the period 1986-2000, international co-movement was much weaker (real regionalization). At the same time, U.S. international asset trade has increased...

We investigate the welfare implications of changing the mix between capital and labor taxes for a model economy in which heterogeneous households face uninsurable labor income risk. The stochastic process for labor earnings we construct is consistent with empirical estimates of earnings risk,...