Many individuals simultaneously have significant credit card debt and money in the bank. The credit card debt puzzle is as follows: given high interest rates on credit cards and low rates on bank accounts, why not pay down debt? While some economists go to elaborate lengths to explain this, we...

Many individuals simultaneously have significant credit card debt and money in the bank. The credit card debt puzzle is: given high interest rates on credit cards and low rates on bank accounts, why not pay down debt? While some economists go to elaborate lengths to explain this, we argue it is...

the model account for relevant properties of the data, but not very significantly. The biggest quantitative potential for search frictions in this setting appears to be in the dynamic implications they generate for inventories and markups in the retail sector. Assessment of this potential is in...

median household in the puzzle group.

Reverse mortgages allow elderly homeowners with limited income or financial wealth to borrow against their housing wealth without downsizing or selling out and becoming a renter. Although the proportion of elderly homeowners using reverse mortgages has been increasing rapidly, only 1.4 percent...

We extend the notion of competitive search equilibrium to an environment with adverse selection. Uninformed principals post contracts to attract informed agents. Agents observe the contracts and apply for one, trading off the probability of matching with a principal against the terms of trade...

Arguably the most difficult question in macroeconomics is: why do individuals set prices in nominal terms that do not respond to changes in the aggregate price level? Of course some must respond, or the aggregate does not change, but many prices seem sticky in the short run. In popular macro...

We study the long run (low frequency) dynamic relationship between money, as measured by inflation or interest rates, and unemployment. We first discuss the data. We then develop a framework where money and unemployment are both modeled with microfoundations based on explicit frictions. This...

We study general equilibrium with nonconvexities. In these economies there exist sunspot equilibria without the usual assumptions needed in convex economies, and they have good welfare properties. Moreover, in these equilibria, agents act as if they have quasi-linear utility. Hence wealth...