We survey an emerging literature at the intersection of organizational economics and international trade. We argue that a proper modelling of the organizational aspects of production provides valuable insights on the aggregate workings of the world economy. In reviewing the literature, we describe certain predictions of standard models that are a¤ected or even overturned when organizational dec...

Labor’s share of GDP in most OECD countries has declined over the last two decades. Some authors have suggested that these changes are linked to deregulation of product and labor markets. To examine this we focus on a large quasi-experiment in the OECD: the privatization of many network industries (e.g. telecommunications and utilities). We present a model with agency problems, imperfect produc...

This paper examines the impact of unemployment insurance (UI) on aggregate employment by exploiting cross-state variation in maximum benefit duration during Great Recession. Comparing adjacent counties located neighboring states, there is no statistically significant increasing UI generosity employment. Point estimates are uniformly small magnitude, and most precise rule out employment-to-popul...

This paper presents a novel and unique measure of cross-sectional uncertainty constructed from stock options on individual firms. Cross-sectional varied little between 1980 1995 subsequently had three distinct peaks—during the tech boom, financial crisis, coronavirus epidemic. has mixed relationship with overall economic activity, aggregate is much more powerful for forecasting growth. The data...

We show that during the Great Recession, more-flexible sectors paid lower sectoral bond spreads. rationalize this fact with a model input-output linkages, heterogeneous elasticities, and binding working capital constraints in use of intermediates. difference flexibility between upstream downstream is key for determining role linkages amplifying or mitigating distortions. Calibrating to US econo...

We investigate the susceptibility of democracies to demagogues, studying tensions between representatives who guard voters’ long-run interests and demagogues cater short-run desires. Parties propose consumption investment. Voters base choices on current-period valence shocks. Younger/poorer economies economically disadvantaged voters are attracted demagogue’s disinvestment policies, forcing far...

This paper combines a data-rich environment with machine learning algorithm to provide new estimates of time-varying systematic expectational errors (“belief distortions”) embedded in survey responses. We find sizable distortions even for professional forecasters, all respondent-types overweighting the implicit judgmental component their forecasts relative what can be learned from publicly avai...

We study the relationship between domestic-demand shocks and exports using data for Spanish manufacturing firms in 2002–2013. Exploiting plausibly exogenous geographical variation caused by Great Recession, we find that whose domestic sales declined more experienced a larger increase export flows, controlling firms’ supply determinants. This result illustrates capacity of markets to counteract ...

We provide new evidence on business cycle fluctuations in skewed labor income risk the United States, Germany, Sweden, and France. document four results. First, all countries, skewness of individual growth is strongly procyclical, whereas its variance flat acyclical. Second, this result also holds for continuously employed, full-time workers, indicating that hours margin not main driver; additi...

The challenge for stabilization policy presented by the COVID-19 pandemic stems above all from disruption of circular flow payments, resulting in a failure what Keynes (1936) calls “effective demand.” As consequence, economic activity many sectors can be inefficiently low, and interest-rate cannot eliminate distortions—not because limit on extent to which interest rates reduced, but reductions ...