The standard result in models of sticky prices is that an inflation rate target is better than a price level target at minimizing the variance of real output. This paper provides a contradictory result: a price level target may be preferred in an economy that is characterized by flexible prices...

Though the Japanese banking system has been the focus of numerous empirical studies, there is scant empirical evidence on the characteristics of loan contracts between Japanese firms and their banks. This paper incorporates relatively new contract-specific data on bank loans to large borrowers...

We outline a model of an endogenously evolving banking crisis in a growing economy subject to either idiosyncratic or aggregate productivity shocks. The model incorporates agency problems at two levels: between firms and their banks and between banks and the banks' depositors and deposit...