This paper studies a two-sector New Keynesian model that captures the hump-shaped response of non-durable and durable spending to a monetary shock when non-durable prices are sticky and durable goods are flexibly priced. Based on the estimated parameters, we show that habit formation and investment adjustment costs are not sufficient to generate the gradual response of non-durable and durable s...

Livestock makes an important contribution to the livelihood of Sahelian farmers and herders and is a source of self-insurance against income shocks. By allocating livestock efficiently over space, spatial market integration should foster a sustainable use of pasture resources. It is also expected to favor the sharing of risk across regions by smoothing idiosyncratic price variations. Using mont...

The present paper incorporates a mechanism of rules-based central-bank interventions into a Dornbusch-type framework. We show that the implied reactions of exchange rates and interest rate differentials in response to a monetary shock depend crucially on the particular monetary policy feedback rule. The Dornbusch case of positively correlated and overshooting nominal and real exchange rates as ...

This dissertation consists of three essays organized as chapters. On the first chapter, I revisit the discussions which evaluate different fluctuations of major economic variables produced by different monetary policy rules for small open economies, given the existence of liability dollarization. In particular, monetary rules which either include or exclude exchange rate stability as a monetary...

This paper provides an empirical assessment of the importance of sticky prices in accounting for the variations and the persistence in real exchange rates. Vector autoregressions with five variables from two countries that always include the United States are estimated. Restrictions are imposed to identify a global shock, and two sets of country specific output shocks. One set of shocks is asso...

Business cycles reflect changes over time in the amount of trade between individuals. In this paper we show that incorporating explicitly intra-temporal gains from trade between individuals into a macroeconomic model can provide new insight into the potential mechanisms driving economic fluctuations as well as modify key policy implications. We first show how a “gains from trade” approach can e...

This paper assesses the empirical performance of Calvo-style sticky goods price models. We argue that Calvo-style models in which firms update non-reoptimized prices to lagged inflation are consistent with the aggregate data in a statistical sense. We then investigate whether these models imply plausible degrees of inertia in price setting behavior by firms. We find that these model do, but onl...

What is the impact of higher technological volatility on asset-prices and macroeconomic aggregates? I find the answer hinges on its sectoral origin. I document several novel empirical facts: Volatility that originates from the consumption sector plays the “traditional” role of depressing the real economy and stock prices, whereas volatility that originates from the investment sector boosts pric...

Are the recessionary consequences of oil-price shocks due to oil-price shocks themselves or to contractionary monetary policies that arise in response to inflation concerns engendered by rising oil prices? Can systematic monetary policy be used to alleviate the consequences of oil shocks on the economy? This paper builds a dynamic general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition in which o...

In New Keynesian models with sticky wages, the quantity of labor is solely determined by the demand side. Unions with monopsony power set the wage above what it takes to make agents work. If wages are sticky, however, a change of circumstances may make the demand for labor higher than agents’ willingness to work. Because of the simplicity of log-linearization, the literature implicitly assumes ...