We study monetary models with nondegenerate stationary distributions of money holdings. We find that the Friedman rule does not typically maximize ex post social welfare. An increase in the rate of growth of the money supply has two effects: the standard distortionary, or rate-of-return, effect...

We present an analysis of how political factors may come into play in the equilibrium determination of inflation. We employ a standard overlapping generations model with heterogenous young-age endowments, and a government that funds an exogenous spending via a combination of non-distortionary...

Pension systems are of crucial importance for life-cycle savings. Since the early 2000s, a transition to a multi-pillar architecture, adding a funded occupational scheme to existing public plans, has been underway in almost every OECD nation. While many aspects of this transition – its...

A cornerstone of demographic transition theory is that declines in infant and child mortality plausibly explain the onset of fertility decline in most countries. Simple versions of the Barro-Becker model of fertility choice have trouble delivering this link. We propose an extension, the...