This paper studies fluctuations in a real business cycle model when there is a risk neutral agent present to offer insurance to workers. This economy is compared with one in which there is no risk neutral agent but labor is indivisible. In static models it is difficult to distinguish the risk...

The reason why the assumption of a representative agent is so popular in the equilibrium business cycle literature is mainly that equilibrium allocations are derived by solving a concave programming problem, whereas once heterogeneity is introduced it is necessary to solve for weights on...

The key ingredients of real business cycle models are common. The market structure is perfectly competitive, the forcing process is a technology shock, and in most cases agents are identical. Textbook market structures are introduced in a real business cycle model. The market structures studied...

A modified version of the nominal contract developed by Gray (1976) and Fischer (1977) is introduced in a general equilibrium model with money which has been used in the real business cycle literature. Money is introduced in the model through cash-in-advance constraint. The contract studied is...

Recent empirical work finds a negative correlation between product market regulation and aggregate employment. We examine the effect of product market regulations on hours worked in a benchmark aggregate model of time allocation as well as in a standard dynamic model of entry and exit. We find...

This paper examines the effect of agricultural development on a country's overall development and growth experience. In most poor countries, large fractions of land, labor, and other productive resources are devoted to producing food for subsistence needs. This 'food problem' can delay a...

We assess the empirical importance of income and price effects for structural transformation in the postwar US. We explain two natural approaches to the data: sectors may be categories of final expenditure or value added; e.g., the service sector may be the final expenditure on services or the value...