We analyze an exchange economy of unsecured credit where borrowers have the option to declare bankruptcy in which case they are temporarily excluded from financial markets. Endogenous credit limits are imposed that are just tight enough to prevent default. Economies with temporary exclusion differ from their permanent exclusion counterparts in two important properties. If households are extreme...

This paper analyzes the impact of investment in information technology (IT) on the recent resurgence of world economic growth. We describe the growth of the world economy, seven regions, and 14 major economies during the period 1989–2004. We allocate the growth of world output between input growth and productivity and find, surprisingly, that input growth greatly predominates! Moreover, differe...

In a two-country infinite-horizon model, with two traded goods and two factors of production and no international borrowing and lending, there is no convergence of incomes if there is factor-price equalization. With factor-price equalization, the Euler equations of the two economies become identical. I show that in such a set-up if agents have a non-zero probability of death, then we do get con...

With the exception of existence, not much is known of economies where individual preferences may depend on prices. We show that the main properties of competitive equilibria that fall under the general heading of qualitative comparative statics remain true when preferences are price dependent, provided that the total resources are allowed to vary in the parameter space. The equilibrium set is a...

We decentralize incentive efficient allocations in large adverse selection economies by introducing a Walrasian market for mechanisms, that is, for menus of contracts. Facing a budget constraint, informed individuals choose lotteries over mechanisms, while firms supply (slots at) mechanisms at given prices. An equilibrium requires that firms cannot favorably change, or cut, prices. We show that...

We analyze the pricing of a productive asset in a class of dynamic exchange economies with heterogeneous, infinitely–lived agents, and self–enforcing intertemporal trades. Individual incomes fluctuate and are correlated; preferences, dividends and aggregate income are fixed. Almost all economies in this class have a unique stationary Markovian equilibrium with fluctuations in asset prices. As t...

We extend the classical results on the Walras-core existence and equivalence to an ambiguous asymmetric information economies, i.e., economies where agents maximize Maximin Expected Utility (MEU). The interest of considering ambiguity arises from the fact that, in the presence of MEU decision making, there is no conflict between efficiency and incentive compatibility, (contrary to the Bayesian ...

In this paper, I provide a possible explanation of why nominally risk-free bonds are essential in monetary economies. I argue that the role of nominal bonds is to enable agents to engage in intertemporal exchanges of money. I show that bonds can only serve this role if they are illiquid (costly to exchange for goods). Finally, I argue that in economies in which nominal bonds are essential, it i...

This paper presents a model in which economies of scope in production play a key role in a vertically-linked production structure. It identifies the divergence in the degrees of economies of scope and the attribute spaces of the products in different stages of production as a fundamental economic force behind outsourcing. Among other things, it is shown that outsourcing occurs in the following ...

This study aimed at examining the merit of crop diversification as a strategy for agricultural growth in Bangladesh. Specifically, the existence of economies of diversification, scale economies and diversification efficiencies at the farm level were examined using a stochastic input-distance function approach. Results reveal strong evidence of diversification economies amongst most crop enterpr...