This paper examines how durable goods and financial frictions shape the business cycle of a small open economy subject to shocks to trend and transitory shocks. In the data, nondurable consumption is not as volatile as income for both developed and emerging market economies. The simulation of...

A puzzle in international macroeconomics is that observed real exchange rates are highly volatile. Standard international real business cycle (IRBC) models cannot reproduce this fact. We show that TFP processes for the U.S. and the "rest of the world," is characterized by a vector error...

Working paper on the commercialization of solar energy technology in developing countries. Discusses theoretical issues and energy policy implications, factors affecting supply and demand, incl. Investment and profitability, costs and the level of state intervention. Analyses in detail (1) water...

Boosting women’s relative control of income and other economic resources has so many consequences that positively enhance both gender equality and development that female economic empowerment may be close to being a “magic potion.†[Paper presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of...