Search Results
Speech
The Impact of the Pandemic on Cultural Capital in the Finance Industry
Remarks at the Risk USA Conference (delivered via videoconference).
Journal Article
Do Banks Lend to Distressed Firms?
Concerns emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic over banks continuing to lend to unproductive businesses that were close to default. Recent research shows that lenders have incentives to offer relatively better terms to less-productive and more-indebted firms to recover their prior investments. U.S. loan-level data confirm the empirical relevance of such lending behavior. A rich model of firms and banks further emphasizes that this type of lending can also depress overall productivity by sustaining firms that should otherwise exit the economy.
Report
Small firms’ formalization: the stick treatment
Firm informality is pervasive throughout the developing world, and Bangladesh is no exception. The informal status of many firms substantially reduces the tax basis and therefore affects the provision of public goods. The literature on encouraging formalization has focused predominantly on reducing the direct costs of formalization and has found negligible effects from such policies. In this paper, we focus on a stick intervention, which, to the best of our knowledge, is the first in a developing-country setting to deal with the most direct and dominant form of informality: the lack of ...
Speech
Prepare for Landing
Remarks at the ISDA Benchmark Strategies Forum (delivered via videoconference).
Working Paper
The Causal Effects of Expected Depreciations
We estimate the causal effects of a shift in the expected future exchange rate of a local currency against the US dollar on a representative sample of firms in an open economy. We survey a nationally representative sample of firms and provide the one-year-ahead nominal exchange rate forecast published by the local central bank to a random sub-sample of firm managers. The treatment is effective in shifting exchange rate and inflation expectations and perceptions. These effects are persistent and larger for non-exporting firms. Linking survey responses with administrative census data, we find ...
Speech
The Federal Reserve’s Corporate Credit Facilities: Why, How, and For Whom
Remarks at The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (delivered via videoconference).
Firms’ Wage-Setting Power: A New Take on Monopsony in the Labor Market
Why do some firms seem to pay workers less than what their labor is worth? An economic model gives insights into how wage-setting power arises in modern labor markets.
Working Paper
Supply Chain Networks and the Macroeconomic Expectations of Firms
In a randomized control trial of customer-supplier firm pairs in New Zealand, we treat with information one firm in a pair and analyze the treatment's effects on the expectations and actions of both the directly treated firms (direct effect) and connected firms that did not directly receive information (spillover effect). The direct and spillover effects on expectations and actions are significant and of comparable magnitude. Higher expected future real GDP growth increases prices and employment, while greater uncertainty about it reduces prices, investment, and employment. We show that ...
Speech
A Resolution for 2021: No New LIBOR
Remarks at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s LIBOR Transition Forum (delivered via videoconference).
Briefing
Firm Closures, a Global Phillips Curve, and More: A Recap of the Fall Research Workshop
How do firms decide how to locate their stores? Do payday loan regulations help or harm consumer welfare? How many firms go out of business due to financial market inefficiencies? These were among the questions addressed by researchers during a recent research workshop.