The large differences in income per capita across countries are mostly explained by differences total factor productivity (TFP). What explains differences in TFP across countries? Evidence suggests that the (mis)allocation of factors of production across heterogenous production units is an...

This paper develops a model in which heterogenous firms invest in R&D to improve technology, and heterogeneous workers invest in human capital to increase their earnings. Both investment technologies have stochastic components, and the balanced growth path has stationary, nondegenerate...

In many economic environments, firms compete in output markets that are not competitive, either because there is strategic interaction such as in a patent race or an oligopoly, or there are externalities such as knowledge spillovers. Very often, having skilled workers is crucial for success in...

We study the link between timing of cash flows and expected returns in general equilibrium production economies. Standard neoclassical RBC models produce an upward-sloping term structure of equity returns. Our economy incorporates heterogeneous exposure to aggregate productivity shocks across...

For decades credit rating agencies were viewed as trusted arbiters of creditworthiness and their ratings as important tools for managing risk. The common narrative is that the value of ratings has been compromised by the evolution of the industry to a form where issuers pay for ratings. In this...

This paper provides a theory of how the wealth distribution of an economy affects the optimal design of its educational system. The model features two key ingredients. First, agents are heterogeneous both in their ability and we alth levels, neither of which is observable. Second, returns to...

In this paper we study how funding constraints affect asset prices internationally. We build an equilibrium model with multiple countries where investors face margin constraints, and derive an international funding-liquidity-adjusted CAPM. In particular, the model has implications for (i) the...

We develop a framework that uses micro data to estimate the aggregate capital-labor elasticity of substitution. We first show that the aggregate elasticity is a convex combination of the plant-level elasticity of substitution and the elasticity of demand. This expression captures substitution...

In U.S. data 1981-2012, unsecured firm credit moves procyclically and tends to lead GDP, while secured firm credit is at best acyclical. In this paper we develop a tractable dynamic general equilibrium model in which unsecured firm credit arises from self-enforcing borrowing constraints...

What is the macroeconomic effect of having a substantial number of firms close to default? This paper studies financial distress costs in a model where customers, suppliers and workers suffer losses if their employer goes bankrupt. I show that this mechanism generates amplification of...