We develop a methodology that allows DSGE models to capture the empirical content of informational frictions while bypassing the computational challenges that come with conventional formalizations of such frictions. We apply this methodology in the context of an RBC model augmented with a type...

Crises are volatile times when endogenous sources of information are closely monitored. We study the role of information in crises by introducing a financial market in a coordination game with imperfect information. The asset price aggregates dispersed private information acting as a public...

Different beliefs about the fairness of social competition and what determines income inequality influence the redistributive policy chosen in a society. But the composition of income in equilibrium depends on tax policies. We show how the interaction between social beliefs and welfare policies...

Does welfare improve when ?firms are better informed about the state of the economy and can better coordinate their decisions? We address this question in an elementary business-cycle model that highlights how the dispersion of information can be the source of both nominal and real rigidity....

We study how the heterogeneity of information impacts the efficiency of the business cycle and the design of optimal fiscal and monetary policy. We do so within a model that features a standard Dixit-Stiglitz demand structure, introduces dispersed private information about the underlying...

This paper develops a novel theory of the origins of fluctuations. This theory dispenses with the dubious notions of exogenous disturbances to technologies, preferences, or mysterious wedges. Instead, it points out the central role that self-fulfilling expectations can play in shaping short-run...