We develop a theory of financial intermediary leverage cycles in the context of a dynamic model of the macroeconomy. The interaction between a production sector, a financial intermediation sector, and a household sector gives rise to amplification of fundamental shocks that affect real economic...

Includes descriptive metadata provided by producer in QuickTime movie file: "Politics, Economics and Social Issues - Video - Paul Volcker talks about the economic crisis." By Vanderbilt University. Paul A. Volcker, senior economic advisor to President Obama and former chairman of the Federal...

This PhD dissertation consists of three self-contained chapters in the field of macroeconomics. The first two chapters rely a large scanner data set from the United States. The data set contains detailed pricing and sales information from retail stores as well as comprehensive information on...

This paper bridges the gap between two popular approaches to estimating the natural rate of unemployment, u*. The first approach uses detailed labor market indicators, such as labor market flows, cross-sectional data on unemployment and vacancies, or various measures of demographic changes. The...