14th Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference; November 7–8, 2013

Disaggregating the Matching Function by Peter A. Diamond and Ayşegül Şahin; 17th Annual Research Conference, November 3-4, 2016

On the Desirability of Capital Controls, by Jonathan Heathcote and Fabrizio Perri; Presented at the Fifteenth Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference, November 13-14, 2014

In a standard two country international macro model we ask whether shutting down the market for international non-contingent borrowing and lending is ever desirable. The answer is yes. Imposing capital controls is unilaterally desirable when initial conditions are such that ruling out bond trade generates a sufficiently favorable change in the expected path for the terms of trade. Imposing capi...

The Causes of Fiscal Transparency: Evidence from the American States, by James E. Alt, David Dreyer Lassen, and Shanna Rose -- Reforms: IMF Sixth Jacques Polak Annual Research Conference, November 3-4, 2005

We use unique panel data on the evolution of transparent budget procedures in the American states over the past three decades to explore the political and economic determinants of fiscal transparency. Our preliminary results suggest that more equal political competition and power sharing are associated with both greater levels of fiscal transparency and increases in fiscal transparency during t...

Unintended Consequences of LOLR Facilities: The Case of Illiquid Leverage

While the direct effect of lender-of-last-resort (LOLR) facilities is to forestall the default of financial firms that lose funding liquidity, an indirect effect is to allow these firms to minimize deleveraging sales of illiquid assets. This unintended consequence of LOLR facilities manifests itself as excess illiquid leverage in the financial sector, can make future liquidity shortfalls more l...

Cyclical Unemployment, Structural Unemployment

Whenever unemployment stays high for an extended period, it is common to see analyses, statements, and rebuttals about the extent to which the high unemployment is structural, not cyclical. This essay views the Beveridge curve pattern of unemployment and vacancy rates and the related matching function as proxies for the functioning of the labor market and explores issues in that proxy relations...