Research

Working Papers

Abstract: In expectations-driven liquidity traps, a higher inflation target is associated with lower inflation and consumption. As a result, introducing the possibility of expectations-driven liquidity traps to an otherwise standard model lowers the optimal inflation target. Using a calibrated New Keynesian model with an effective lower bound (ELB) constraint on nominal interest rates, we find that even a very small probability of falling into an expectations-driven liquidity trap lowers the optimal inflation target nontrivially. Our analysis provides a reason to be cautious about the argument that central banks should raise their inflation targets in light of a higher likelihood of hitting the ELB.


  • "Firm Investment and the State-Dependent Transmission of Monetary Policy" (Field Paper)

Abstract: This paper explores how the distribution of default risk impacts the transmission of monetary policy to aggregate investment. In contractions, the distribution of firm default risk shifts, as firms become more likely to default on their debt obligations. I show both empirically and in a model that this shift in the distribution creates a state dependence in the transmission of monetary policy to aggregate investment: aggregate investment is less responsive to changes in interest rates in contractions. In both the data and my model, firms that are at high risk of default are responsible for driving this state dependent transmission because a decrease in interest rates does not pass through to the interest rates they face on issuing new debt. Thus, high default risk firms can't afford to issue new debt to finance additional investment at favorable enough interest rates. Quantitatively, I estimate that the decreased transmission of monetary policy to aggregate investment is large due to the fact that more firms become risky in contractions. In contractions, aggregate investment is between 1 - 2 percent less responsive to a 25 bps expansionary monetary policy shock.


Coming Soon

  • "Using Industry-Level Data to Estimate the U.S. Output Gap" with Gianni Amisano and Manuel Gonzalez-Astudillo

  • "Deflationary Equilibrium under Uncertainty" with Taisuke Nakata and Sebastian Schmidt