This paper introduces a business cycle model that integrates financial markets and endogenous financial volatility at the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB). We derive three key insights: first, central banks can mitigate excess financial volatility at the ZLB by credibly committing to future economic...

This paper demonstrates that in macroeconomic models with nominal rigidities, a global solution exists that supports an alternate equilibrium where traditional Taylor rules give rise to self-fulfilling aggregate volatility and excess risk-premium. Within the rational expectations framework, we...

One explanation for the usefulness of financial variables as tools for economic forecasting is that they embody the expectations of economic agents about the future state of the economy. In this paper, we test whether interest rate volatility contains information on the expectations of agents...

What is the source of interest rate volatility? Why do low interest rates precede business cycle booms? Most observers tend to assume that monetary policy is largely responsible for it. Indeed, a standard real business cycle model delivers rather small fluctuations in real interest rates. Here,...

How does access to credit impact consumption volatility? Theory and evidence from advanced economies suggests that greater household access to finance smooths consumption. Evidence from emerging markets, where consumption is usually more volatile than income, indicates that financial reform...

Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction assumes that volatile growth leads to a more efficient reallocation of resources and the adoption of new technologies. However, this can only occur if such productivity-enhancing opportunities are available within society. This availability is...

Traditionally, observed fluctuations in aggregate economic time series have been mainly modelled as being the result of exogenous disturbances. A better understanding of macroeconomic phenomena, however, surely requires looking directly at the relations between variables that may trigger...

Traditionally, observed fluctuations in aggregate economic time series have been mainly modeled as being the result of exogenous disturbances. A better understanding of macroeconomic phenomena, however, surely requires looking directly at the relations between variables that may trigger...

We assess whether the euro had an impact first on the degree of integration of European financial markets, and, second, on the euro area term structure. We propose two methodologies to measure integration: one relies on time-varying GARCH correlations, and the other one on a regression...

It is well-known that interest rates are extremely persistent, yet they are best modeled and understood as stationary processes. These properties are contradictory in the workhorse Gaussian affine term structure model in which the persistent data often result in unit roots that imply...