This thesis comprises three self-contained chapters that each contributes new insights to this field of empirical macroeconomics. Chapter 1 examines the role of shocks to consumer misperceptions in explaining macroeconomic fluctuations. This chapter employs a Bayesian estimation of a New...

The People's Postcode Lottery in the United Kingdom randomly awards a British postcode weekly with £30.000 and with 3 million pounds every month, distributed among all the households that play the lottery within the postcode. We analyze the effects of living in an awarded postcode of the...