Search-theoretic models of monetary exchange are based on explicit descriptions of the frictions that make money essential. However, tractable versions usually have strong assumptions that make them ill suited for discussing some policy questions, especially those concerning changes in the money...

Dynamic general equilibrium models that include explicit household production sectors provide a useful framework within which to analyze a variety of macroeconomic issues. However, some implications of these models depend critically on parameters, including the elasticity of substitution between...

The simple search-theoretic model of fiat money has three symmetric Nash equilibria: all agents accept money with probability 1; all agents accept money with probability 0; and all agents accept money with probability y in (0,1). Here I construct an asymmetric pure strategy equilibrium,...

We analyze economies with indivisible commodities. There are two reasons for doing so. First, we extend and provide some new insights into sunspot equilibrium theory. Finite competitive economies with perfect markets and convex consumption sets do not allow sunspot equilibria; these same...

Unemployment insurance is financed by a tax on wages below a given ceiling. Daniel S. Hamermesh (1977) advocates raising this ceiling on distributional grounds. In a job-search model, this does decrease unemployment among low-wage workers, but also increases unemployment among high-wage workers,...

A classic result in the theory of labor contracts with asymmetric information is that underemployment results if and only if leisure is an inferior good. A classic result in models where unemployment occurs because of indivisibilities, including implicit contract models and some equilibrium...

Simple search models have equilibria where some agents accept money and others do not. We argue such equilibria should not be taken seriously. This is unfortunate if one wants a model with partial acceptability. We introduce heterogeneous agents and show partial acceptability arises naturally...

The authors develop a model of production and exchange with uncertainty concerning the quality of commodities and study the role of fiat money in ameliorating frictions caused by private information. The model is specified so that, without private information, only high-quality commodities are...