In standard models wages are too volatile and returns too smooth. We make wages sticky through infrequent resetting, resulting in both (i) smoother wages and (ii) volatile returns. Furthermore, the model produces other puzzling features of financial data: (iii) high Sharpe Ratios, (iv) low and...

Correlations of monthly, quarterly and annual consumption growth rates, calculated from novel weekly Gallup consumption data, with the equity premium are high – 13%, 44% and 54% at monthly, quarterly and yearly frequency. The power utility consumption CAPM prices the sample average annual...

We develop a dynamic macroeconomic model in which the secular decline in real interest rates arises endogenously from rising wealth inequality. Challenging the standard "safe asset shortage" hypothesis, the model shows how falling real rates can coexist with a stable safe asset ratio--closely...

We use a fully-specified neoclassical model augmented with costly external equity as a laboratory to study the relations between stock returns and equity financing decisions. Simulations show that the model can simultaneously and in many cases quantitatively reproduce: procyclical equity issuance;...

This paper introduces the rational inattention hypothesis (RI) -- that agents process information subject to finite channel constraints -- into a stochastic growth model with permanent technology shocks. We find that RI raises consumption volatility relative to output by introducing an...

This paper extends the standard Mehra-Prescott one-good, pure exchange economy to the case where agents are assumed to be in ignorance of the true transition probabilities of the growth rate of output and to learn them using bayes rule. The main conclusion is that the proposed bayes model yields...

Survey and option data are used to take a fresh look at the equity premium puzzle. Survey data on equity returns (Livingston survey) shows much lower expected excess returns than ex post data. At the same time, option data suggests that investors tend to overestimate the volatility of equity...

This paper studies if the consumption-based asset pricing model can explain the cross-section of expected returns. The CRRA model and several refinements (habit persistence and idiosyncratic shocks) all imply that the conditional expected return is linearly increasing in the asset's conditional...

We use a production-based asset pricing model to investigate whether financial market imperfections are quantitatively important for pricing the cross-section of returns. Specifically, we use GMM to explore the stochastic Euler equation restrictions imposed on asset returns by optimal investment...

This paper studies the impact of financial sector size and leverage on the business cycle and risk-free rates dynamics. We develop a general equilibrium model of a productive economy where financial intermediaries provide costly risk mitigation to households by pooling the idiosyncratic risks of...