We study sunspot immunity in a dynamic monetary economy in which consumers are allowed to trade put and call option contracts on the general price level. We define the concept of strong sunspot immunity to characterize economies that have no sunspot equilibria regardless of the number of...

We investigate the dependence of the dynamic behavior of an endogenous growth model on the degree of returns to scale. We focus on a simple (but representative) growth model with publicly funded inventive activity. We show that constant returns to reproducible factors (the leading case in the...

We analyze sunspot-equilibrium prices in nonconvex economies with perfect markets and a continuous sunspot variable. Our primary result is that every sunspot equilibrium allocation can be supported by prices that, when adjusted for probabilities, are constant across states. This result extends...

We evaluate the desirability of having an elastic currency generated by a lender of last resort that prints money and lends it to banks in distress. When banks cannot borrow, the economy has a unique equilibrium that is not Pareto optimal. The introduction of unlimited borrowing at a zero...

This paper investigates how volatile the general price level can be in an equilibrium where all uncertainty is extrinsic. The government operates a lump-sum redistribution policy using fiat money. An approach to modeling asset market segmentation is introduced in which this tax policy determines...

This paper introduces an approach to the study of optimal government policy in economies characterized by a coordination problem and multiple equilibria. Such models are often criticized as not being useful for policy analysis because they fail to assign a unique prediction to each possible...

This paper examines the impact monetary redistribution policies have on the amount of sunspot-induced volatility in an economy. A dynamic model of segmented asset markets is presented in which the tax-transfer policy determines, in a continuous way, the influence sunspots can have on the general...

We study how discount window policy affects the frequency of banking crises, the level of investment, and the scope for indeterminacy of equilibrium. Previous work has shown that providing costless liquidity through a discount window has mixed effects in terms of these criteria: It prevents...

We examine how the possibility of a bank run affects the investment decisions made by a competitive bank. Cooper and Ross (1998, Bank runs: liquidity costs and investment distortions. Journal of Monetary Economics 41, 27–38) have shown that when the probability of a run is small, the bank will...

We study optimal fiscal policy in an economy where (i) search frictions create a coordination problem and generate multiple, Pareto-ranked equilibria and (ii) the government finances the provision of a public good by taxing market activity. The government must choose the tax rate before it knows...