In this paper we empirically explore how characteristics of the domestic financial system in uence the international allocation of consumption risk using a sample of OECD countries. Our results show that the extent of risk sharing achieved does not depend on the overall development of the...

This paper examines the pass-through from the market interest rate to the rate charged on bank loans using aggregate data for the U.K. Thereby, we explicitly disentangle credit supply and demand and allow the interest rate charged on loans to depend on the volume of loans. We find that, although...

We design an experiment to investigate the influence of announced future variations in interest rates and prices on consumption decisions. In an experimental implementation of the discounted utility model, the subjects learn the entire paths of inflation and interest rates prior to deciding on a...

We estimate the effects of stock market volatility on the growth rates of durable consumption, non-durable consumption and invest- ment using post-war US data. Our results indicate that high levels of stock market volatility exert large adverse effects on the growth rates of investment and...

This paper studies the dynamics of international consumption risk sharing among the G7 countries. Based on the dynamic conditional correlation model due to Engle (2002), we construct a time-varying, consumption-based measure of risk sharing. We find that although the exposure to countryspecific...

We analyze the influence of the fiscal position on the transmission of government spending shocks in a New Keynesian model. We find that once we allow for positive levels of government debt in the steady state, the sign and the size of the fiscal multiplier depend strongly on the horizon at...

We analyze the influence of the fiscal position on the transmission of government spending shocks in a New Keynesian model. We find that once we allow for positive levels of government debt in the steady state, the size of the fiscal multiplier depends strongly on the horizon at which the...

In this paper we analyze how the availability of credit in uences the relationship between government size as a proxy for scal stabilization policy and the amplitude of business cycle uctuations in a sample of advanced OECD countries. Interpreting relatively low loan-tovalue ratios as an...

We analyze the relationship between firm-specific shocks and aggregate fluctuations. In particular, profitability of firms affected by a negative shock worsens. To the extent that the banks cannot distinguish between aggregate and firm-specific profitability shocks, they will adjust interest...

We show that TFP reacts counter-cyclically to macroeconomic shocks, which we identify by imposing sign restrictions. Counterfactual simulations, based on a New Keynesian DSGE model, show that firms manage to employ labor more efficiently during downturns, which leads to a muted drop in the...