We show that international consumption risk sharing is significantly improved by capital flows, especially portfolio investment. Concomitantly, we show that poor institutions hamper risk sharing, but to an extent that decreases with openness. In particular, risk sharing is prevalent even among...

We document that the deregulation of bank branching restrictions in theUnited States triggered a reallocation across sectors, with end effectson state-level volatility. This change in state-level volatility cannotbe explained simply by shifts in sector-level returns and volatility. Areallocation...

We show that since 1994, branching deregulations in the U.S have Âsignificantly affected the supply of mortgage credit, and ultimately house prices. With deregulation, the number and volume of originated mortgage loans increase, while denial rates fall. But the deregulation has no effect on a...

We show that international consumption risk sharing is significantly improved by capital flows, especially portfolio investment. Concomitantly, we show that poor institutions hamper risk sharing, but to an extent that decreases with openness. In particular, risk sharing is prevalent even among...

We estimate a version of the Melitz and Ottaviano [Melitz, Marc J. and Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P., 2008, Market size, trade, and productivity, Review of Economic Studies 75(1), pp. 295-316.] model of international trade with firm heterogeneity. The model is constructed to yield testable...

This paper studies the determinants of the international synchronization of business cycles. Surprisingly, countries that trade more do not appear to have more synchronized cycles once other factors are accounted for. On the other hand, the extent of co-fluctuations increases quite robustly with...

We estimate a version of the Melitz and Ottaviano [Melitz, Marc J. and Ottaviano, Giannnarco I.P., 2008, Market size, trade, and productivity, Review of Economic Studies 75(l), pp. 295-316.] model of international trade with firm heterogeneity. The model is constructed to yield testable...

We revisit the debt overhang question. We first use non-parametric techniques to isolate a panel of countries on the downward sloping section of a debt Laffer curve. In particular, overhang countries are ones where a threshold level of debt is reached in sample, beyond which (initial) debt ends...