The large, persistent fluctuations in international trade that can not be explained in standard models by either changes in expenditures or relative prices are often attributed to trade wedges. We show that these trade wedges can reflect the decisions of importers to change their inventory...

The classic explanation for the persistence and volatility of real exchange rates is that they are the result of nominal shocks in an economy with sticky goods prices. A key implication of this explanation is that if goods in different sectors differing degrees of price stickiness then goods in...

recession.

We study a model where households use home equity to finance consumption expenditures and we analyze the macroeconomic consequences of a credit crunch triggered by tightening lending standards.

We study the role of inventories for the volatility of international trade and the propagation of business cycles. We build a model of international trade in which intermediaries have a precautionary motive to hold inventories. With either productivity or demand shocks, we find inventories...

In the Great Contraction, regions of the United States that experienced the largest change in household debt to income ratios also experienced the largest drops in output and employment. Such output drops not only occurred for firms that sell primarily to a local region but also for regional...

We document that international transactions for narrowly defined goods occur infrequently. We study the implications of this lumpiness of international trade for the response of prices and quantities during large devaluations. Using a calibrated inventory management model of international trade...

Studies of disaggregated price data document a robust, positive relationship between nominal exchange rate (NER) volatility and the variability of relative prices for cities separated by national borders. This relationship is interpreted as evidence of sticky prices. This paper shows that a...

using a novel plant-level dataset from Taiwan (1992-2004), that new product introductions are a key contributor to increases in plant-level factor productivity. We then formulate and calibrate a span-of-control model of product choice and firm dynamics in which new products embody the frontier...

The classic explanation for the persistence and volatility of real exchange rates is that they are the result of nominal shocks in an economy with sticky goods prices. A key implication of this explanation is that if goods in different sectors have different degrees of price stickiness then...