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Jel Classification:E6 

Working Paper
An Empirical Analysis of the Cost of Borrowing

We empirically study firm financing costs using a comprehensive dataset of corporate bonds and bank loans. We construct a measure of the cost of financing, the ExcessDebt Premium, which controls for observable debt characteristics. We document two key findings: first, bank loans are about 97 basis points cheaper than corporate bonds when controlling for observable characteristics. Second, there is significant dispersion in borrowing costs, even within the same firm and quarter. The analysis reveals that this within firm variation persists after accounting for instrument type, maturity, ...
Working Papers , Paper 2024-016

Working Paper
Battles and Diseases in the U.S. Civil War

Wars create short-term fluctuations in mortality. Belligerents might mitigate their own casualties with larger armies that hinder their opponent’s fighting ability. But diseases are frequent in wars and, thus, may reduce the benefits of larger armies. First, I analyze these competing mechanisms in a dynamic model of wartime attrition. Second, I calibrate the model using U.S. Civil War data and find that if the Union had fielded a 50%-larger army in 1861, Union casualties would have been marginally lower. The theory provides the insight for this quantitative result.
Working Papers , Paper 2024-032

Working Paper
Insulation impossible: fiscal spillovers in a monetary union

This paper studies the effects of monetary policy rules in a monetary union. The focus of the analysis is on the interaction between the fiscal policy of member countries (regions) and the central monetary authority. When capital markets are integrated, the fiscal policy of one country will influence equilibrium wages and interest rates. Thus there are fiscal spillovers within a federation. The magnitude and direction of these spillovers, in particular the presence of a crowding out effect, can be influenced by the choice of monetary policy rules. We find that there does not exist a monetary ...
Globalization Institute Working Papers , Paper 30

Working Paper
On the Economic Mechanics of Warfare

How do war-related expenditures affect economically-relevant outcomes at a war’s conclusion (e.g., prevailing side, duration, and casualties)? I present a model of attrition and characterize the effects of resources at a military conclusion (one side cannot fight anymore) and a political conclusion (one side quits). I analyze the Pacific War through the lenses of the model both theoretically and empirically. I find that a parsimonious parameterization reproduces well the aggregate patterns of destruction, measured in ship tonnage, for both belligerents.
Working Papers , Paper 2023-007

Report
Global Supply Chain Pressures, International Trade, and Inflation

We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on euro area inflation and how it compares to the experiences of other countries, such as the United States, over the two-year period 2020-21. Our model-based calibration exercises deliver four key results: (1) compositional effects, or the switch from services to goods consumption, are amplified through global input-output linkages, affecting both trade and inflation; (2) inflation can be higher under sector-specific labor shortages relative to a scenario with no such supply shocks; (3) foreign shocks and global supply chain bottlenecks played an ...
Staff Reports , Paper 1024

Working Paper
Fiscal Multipliers and Financial Crises

What type of fiscal policy is most effective during a financial crisis? I study the macroeconomic effects of the US fiscal policy response to the Great Recession, accounting not only for standard tools such as government purchases and transfers but also for financial sector interventions such as bank recapitalizations and credit guarantees. A nonlinear quantitative model calibrated to the US allows me to study the state-dependent effects of different types of fiscal policies. I combine the model with data on the US fiscal policy response to find that the fall in aggregate consumption would ...
Working Papers , Paper 2018-023

Working Paper
On the Wisdom of Crowds (of Economists)

We study the properties of macroeconomic survey forecast response averages as the number of survey respondents grows. Such averages are “portfolios” of forecasts. We characterize the speed and pattern of the gains from diversification as a function of portfolio size (the number of survey respondents) in both (1) the key real-world data-based environment of the U.S. Survey of Professional Forecasters, and (2) the theoretical model-based environment of equicorrelated forecast errors. We proceed by proposing and comparing various direct and model-based “crowd size signature plots,” which ...
Working Papers , Paper 26-14

Working Paper
Parents, Patience, and Persistence: A Novel Theory of Intergenerational College Attainment

We present a novel theory of intergenerational persistence in college attainment that does not rely on credit constraints, parental transfers and investments, or persistence in innate ability. The gist of our theory is heterogeneity in time preferences, which are endogenous since parents can teach patience to their children before the children make their college decisions. We show, analytically, that the most patient parents are simultaneously more likely to have a college degree and to educate their children to be patient. Persistence follows. We also show that persistence occurs if and only ...
Working Papers , Paper 2025-003

Discussion Paper
Impacts of COVID-19: Mitigation Efforts versus Herd Immunity

The rapid spread of COVID-19 is having devastating effects on the global economy. With death curves beginning to bend, governments will soon need to determine when and how to relax lockdown measures. The crucial question is: what are the public health consequences of reopening the economy? In this article, we argue that the observed decline in daily deaths could be due to two scenarios: social distancing measures and herd immunity. Both the widely used SIR model and the data collected thus far cannot distinguish these two scenarios. Such an identification problem generates a large degree of ...
Policy Hub , Paper 2020-3

Working Paper
Demand-Supply imbalance during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of fiscal policy

To mitigate the health and economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, governments worldwide engaged in massive fiscal support programs. We show that generous fiscal support is associated with an increase in the demand for consumption goods during the pandemic, but industrial production did not adjust quickly enough to meet the sharp increase in demand. This imbalance between supply and demand across countries contributed to high inflation. Our findings suggest a sizable role for fiscal policy in affecting price stability, above and beyond what a monetary authority can do.
Working Papers , Paper 2022-019

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