We document a strong negative relation in the United States between wealth and aggregate volatility. For example the 1970s and the late 2000s were periods of low asset values and high volatility. The early 1960s and the Great Moderation of the 1980s and 1990s were periods of high asset values...

We then explore whether a simple partial equilibrium Friedman-style permanent income model is consistent with the empirical facts. Our preliminary findings suggest that the PIH model provides a reasonably good approximation of the facts in the data, but only if transitory income shocks are the...

One key feature of the 2008-2009 crisis has been its international dimension, as most countries have experienced large synchronous contractions. The recent crisis has also been characterized by a sharp fall in employment but not in productivity. These two characterizing features of the recent...

In this paper, we present a tractable model of a small open economy where the main driver of international borrowing is investment. Debt is non-state-contingent and the choice of default is endogenous, as in Eaton and Gersovitz (1981). By introducing a simple AK technology, we obtain a setup...

n this paper we first use the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth to document how various household choices (including consumption and wealth) change in response to an income change. We show that these responses are not consistent with simple benchmark models (i.e. complete markets or...

The majority of OECD countries has experienced a reduction in macroeconomic volatility during the last two decades. This period is also characterized by a gradual liberalization of the capital accounts in these countries. We first show that, on average, countries/periods with more open capital...

We first document a strong negative correlation between the level of household net worth, and aggregate business cycle volatility over the past 50 years in the United States. The early 1960s and the Great Moderation of the 1980s and 1990s were periods of high asset values and low volatility. The...

The 2008-2009 US crisis is characterized by an unprecedented degree of international synchronization, as all other G7 countries experienced large contractions. The international synchronization of the recent crisis is not present in many of the previous US contractions. We study a two-country...

imbalance.

The paper shows that inequality in private income among US households is, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, at its postwar highs, both at the bottom and at the top of the distribution. The increase in inequality at the bottom seems to be tightly linked to the historically high level of...