We estimate an empirical model of consumption disasters using a new panel data set on consumption and output for over 20 countries and more than 100 years. The model allows for permanent and transitory effects of disasters, nesting both unit root and trend stationary consumption growth. We...

In this paper, we develop a tractable model of the labor market featuring on-the-job search and aggregate fluctuations.

To explore the quantitative implications that AIDS has for the development path of the Sub- Saharan African economies, I extend a standard theory of economic development that reproduces the process of industrialization, Hansen and Prescott (2002), with a population model that relates the age...

Financial crises are costly. In the recent crisis in Argentina, for example, from the onset of sovereign debt repayment difficulties at the end of 2000 until the beginning of 2002, real GDP dropped by almost 20%. A simple aggregate growth accounting exercise suggests that a large part of this...

The paper presents a general equilibrium model with search on the job. Workers differ in terms of skill levels and firms differ in terms of productivity. Depending on the production function characteristics, sorting in matching may occur. The paper estimates the model on Danish match data and...

Educational attainment varies greatly across countries and within countries over time. This paper asks whether the variation in education is primarily due to structural change or to within industry skill upgrading. The main finding is that within industry variation accounts for at least 2/3 of...

I study random-matching economies where at money coexists with real assets, and no restrictions are imposed on payment arrangements. I emphasize informational asymmetries about asset fundamentals to explain the partial illiquidity of real assets and the usefulness of at money. The liquidity of...

We use a model a la Bewly-Huggett-Ayagari to explore the effects of a credit crunch on consumer spending. Households borrow and lend to smooth idiosyncratic income shocks facing an exogenous borrowing constraint. We look at the economy response after an unexpected permananent tightening of this...

Firms commonly spread out their debt expirations across time to reduce the liquidity risk generated by large quantities of debt expiring at the same time. By doing so, they introduce a dynamic coordination problem. In deciding whether to rollover his debt, each maturing creditor is concerned...