Severe economic downturns, characterized by deleverage, are typically preceeded by phenomena of debt overhang. This evidence suggests that large recessions may not be the result of large shocks, but, rather, of the interaction between typical shocks and the current state of the economy. We study...

We study optimal monetary policy in two prototype economies with sticky prices and credit market frictions. In the first economy, credit frictions apply to the financing of the capital stock, generate acceleration in response to shocks and the ”financial markup” (i.e., the premium on...

We lay out a tractable model for fiscal and monetary policy analysis in a currency union, and analyze its implications for the optimal design of such policies. Monetary policy is conducted by a common central bank, which sets the interest rate for the union as a whole. Fiscal policy is...

There has been a lot of interest recently in developing small scale rule-based empirical macro models for the analysis of monetary policy. These models, based on the conventional view that inflation stabilization should be a concern of monetary policy only, have typically neglected the role of...

We analyze welfare maximizing monetary policy in a dynamic general equilibrium two-country model with price stickiness and imperfect competition. In this context, a typcial terms of trade externality affects policy interaction between independent monetary authorities. Unlike the existing...

Within a small open economy we derive a tractable framework for the analysis of the optimal monetary policy design problem as well as of simple feedback rules. The international relative price channel is emphasized as the one peculiar to the open economy dimension of monetary policy. Hence...

We study the effects on the optimal monetary policy design problem of allowing for deviations from the law of one price in import goods prices. We reach three basic results. First, we show that incomplete pass-through renders the analysis of monetary policy of an open economy fundamentally...

We employ Markov-switching regression methods to estimate fiscal policy feedback rules in the U.S. for the period 1960-2002. Our approach allows to capture policy regime changes endogenously. We reach three main conclusions. First, fiscal policy may be characterized, according to Leeper (1991)...

During a fiscal stimulus, does it matter, for the size of the government spending multiplier, which category of agents bears the brunt of the current and/or future adjustment in taxes? In an economy with heterogeneous agents and imperfect financial markets, the answer depends on whether or not...

With perfect credit markets, any (lump-sum) tax redistribution is neutral. We study the e¤ects of a tax redistribution in an economy with heterogenous agents and borrowing constraints. Under ?exible prices, a tax redistribution that favors "the poor" (i.e., the credit constrained) is neutral,...