While the asset price collapse of the late 80s in Japan might explain the disinflationary pressures that followed, it is hard to attribute the persistent deflation that the country has faced since the mid 90s to that initial shock. We argue that a failure to account for demographic trends when...

This paper augments a relatively standard dynamic general equilibrium model with financial frictions in order to quantify the macroeconomic effects of the credit deepening process observed in many Latin American (LA) countries in the last decade, most notably in Brazil. In the model, a stylized...

We quantify the informational content of statements issued by the interest-rate setting com-mittee of the Central Bank of Brazil (COPOM), building on the methodology developed by Luccaand Trebbi (2011). Using Google search queries, we measure the extent to which each COPOM statement is perceived...

The global recession of 2008-09 led to monetary and fiscal policy responses by central banks and government authorities that were often unconventional in size and scope. A study of expansionary measures employed during the recession suggests that overall, the policies were likely effective in...

There is ample evidence that the frequency of price adjustments differs substantially across sectors. This paper introduces sectoral heterogeneity in price stickiness into an otherwise standard sticky price model to study how it affects the dynamics of monetary economies. Qualitative and...

In September 2008, a six-year-old article about the 2002 bankruptcy of United Airlines' parent company resurfaced on the Internet and was mistakenly believed to be reporting a new bankruptcy filing by the company. This episode caused the parent company's stock price to drop by as much as 76...

In this paper we endogenize fixed price time-dependent rules to examine the output effects of monetary disinflation. We derive the optimal rules in and out of inflationary steady states, and develop a methodology to aggregate individual pricing rules which vary through time. Because of strategic...

We characterize optimal state-dependent pricing rules under various forms of infrequent information. In all models, infrequent price changes arise from the existence of a lump-sum "menu cost." We entertain various alternatives for the source and nature of infrequent information. In two benchmark...