Search Results

SORT BY: PREVIOUS / NEXT
Jel Classification:C63 

Working Paper
Rational Inattention via Ignorance Equivalence

We introduce the concept of the ignorance equivalent to effectively summarize the payoff possibilities in a finite Rational Inattention problem. The ignorance equivalent is a unique fictitious action that is weakly preferable to all existing learning strategies and yet generates no new profitable learning opportunities when added to the menu of choices. We fully characterize the relationship between the ignorance equivalent and the optimal learning strategies. Agents with heterogeneous priors self-select their own ignorance equivalent, which gives rise to an expected-utility analogue of the ...
Working Papers , Paper 21-29

Working Paper
Asymmetric Information and the Death of ABS CDOs

A key feature of the 2007 financial crisis is that for many securities trading had ceased; where trading did occur, market prices were well below intrinsic values, especially for ABS CDOs. One explanation is that information had been asymmetric, with sellers having better information than buyers. We first show the information advantages sellers had over buyers in both the issuance of CDOs and, through vertical integration, performance of the CDO collateral that could well have disrupted trading after the onset of the crisis. Using a ?workhorse" model for pricing securities under asymmetric ...
International Finance Discussion Papers , Paper 1075

Working Paper
Computing Equilibria of Stochastic Heterogeneous Agent Models Using Decision Rule Histories

This paper introduces a general method for computing equilibria with heterogeneous agents and aggregate shocks that is particularly suitable for economies with private information. Instead of the cross-sectional distribution of agents across individual states, the method uses as a state variable a vector of spline coefficients describing a long history of past individual decision rules. Applying the computational method to a Mirrlees RBC economy with known analytical solution recovers the solution perfectly well. This test provides considerable confidence on the accuracy of the method.
Working Paper Series , Paper WP 2020-05

Working Paper
Optimal monetary policy regime switches

Given regime switches in the economy?s growth rate, optimal monetary policy rules may respond by switching policy parameters. These optimized parameters differ across regimes and from the optimal choice under fixed regimes, particularly in the inflation target and interest rate inertia. Optimal switching rules produce welfare gains relative to constant rules, with switches in the implicit real interest rate used for policy and the degree of interest rate inertia producing the largest gains. However, gains from switching rules decrease if the monetary authority trades-off the probability of ...
Research Working Paper , Paper RWP 16-7

Working Paper
Occupational Choice, Retirement, and the Effects of Disability Insurance

There is much variation in the physical requirements across occupations, giving rise to great differences in later-life productivity, disability risk, and the value of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). In this paper, I look at how such differences across occupations affect initial career choice as well as the extent to which SSDI, which insures shocks to productivity due to disability, prompts more people to choose physically intense occupations. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS), I estimate a dynamic model of occupational ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2016-051

Working Paper
Tractable latent state filtering for non-linear DSGE models using a second-order approximation

This paper develops a novel approach for estimating latent state variables of Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) models that are solved using a second-order accurate approximation. I apply the Kalman filter to a state-space representation of the second-order solution based on the ?pruning? scheme of Kim, Kim, Schaumburg and Sims (2008). By contrast to particle filters, no stochastic simulations are needed for the filter here--the present method is thus much faster. In Monte Carlo experiments, the filter here generates more accurate estimates of latent state variables than the ...
Globalization Institute Working Papers , Paper 147

Working Paper
Replicating and Projecting the Path of COVID-19 with a Model-Implied Reproduction Number

We fit a simple epidemiology model to daily data on the number of currently-infected cases of COVID-19 in China, Italy, the United States, and Brazil. These four countries can be viewed as representing different stages, from late to early, of a COVID-19 epidemic cycle. We solve for a model-implied effective reproduction number Rt each day so that the model closely replicates the daily number of currently infected cases in each country. Using the model-implied time series of Rt, we construct a smoothed version of the in-sample trajectory which is used to project the future evolution of Rt and ...
Working Paper Series , Paper 2020-24

Working Paper
Finite-Order VAR Representation of Linear Rational Expectations Models: With Some Lessons for Monetary Policy

This paper considers the characterization via finite-order VARs of the solution of a large class of linear rational expectations (LRE) models. I propose a unified approach that uses a companion Sylvester equation to check the existence and uniqueness of a solution to the canonical (first-order) LRE model in finite-order VAR form and a quadratic matrix equation to characterize it decoupling the backward- and forward-looking aspects of the model. I also investigate the fundamentalness of the shocks recovered. Solving LRE models by this procedure is straightforward to implement, general in its ...
Globalization Institute Working Papers , Paper 285

Working Paper
Computing Equilibria of Stochastic Heterogeneous Agent Models Using Decision Rule Histories

This paper introduces a general method for computing equilibria with heterogeneous agents and aggregate shocks that is particularly suitable for economies with private information. Instead of the cross-sectional distribution of agents across individual states, the method uses as a state variable a vector of spline coefficients describing a long history of past individual decision rules. Applying the computational method to a Mirrlees RBC economy with known analytical solution recovers the solution perfectly well. This test provides considerable confidence on the accuracy of the method.
Working Paper Series , Paper WP-2020-05

Working Paper
Rational Inattention via Ignorance Equivalence

We present a novel approach to finite Rational Inattention (RI) models based on the ignorance equivalent, a fictitious action with state-dependent payoffs that effectively summarizes the optimal learning and conditional choices. The ignorance equivalent allows us to recast the RI problem as a standard expected utility maximization over an augmented choice set called the learning-proof menu, yielding new insights regarding the behavioral implications of RI, in particular as new actions are added to the menu. Our geometric approach is also well suited to numerical methods, outperforming ...
Working Papers , Paper 20-24

FILTER BY year

FILTER BY Content Type

FILTER BY Author

Martinez-Garcia, Enrique 4 items

Armenter, Roc 3 items

Eslami, Keyvan 3 items

Hebden, James 3 items

Müller-Itten, Michèle 3 items

Phelan, Tom 3 items

show more (76)

FILTER BY Jel Classification

E32 11 items

C68 8 items

E52 8 items

C61 7 items

E37 6 items

show more (53)

FILTER BY Keywords

Computational methods 3 items

Dynamic programming 3 items

business cycles 3 items

heterogeneous agents 3 items

information acquisition 3 items

Commitment 2 items

show more (154)

PREVIOUS / NEXT