Using a multi-period general equilibrium model, this paper extends the results of Mankiw (1991) by showing that monopolistically competitive firms may require ‘relatively large’ menu costs to dissuade them from changing prices in response to an aggregate demand shock that is perceived to be permanent. Thus, “small” menu costs may be insufficient to contribute to large business cycles. JEL Class...

This paper addresses partly an open question raised in the Handbook of Mathematical economics about the orientability of the pseudo-equilibrium manifold in the basic two-period General Equilibrium with Incomplete markets (GEI) model. For a broad class of explicit asset structures, it is proved that the asset equilibrium space is an orientable manifold if S − J is even. This implies, under the s...

We show that in a duopoly operating in a congested market, with a general congestion function and an arbitrary distribution of consumer disutility for congestion, there cannot exist an asymmetric Nash equilibrium. We also show that whenever an equilibrium does exist it is unique. Closed form expressions for the symmetric equilibrium prices and profits are provided. JEL Classification Numbers: C...

We describe and compare several algorithms for approximating the solution to a model in which inequality constraints occasionally bind. Their performance is evaluated and compared using various parameterizations of the one sector growth model with irreversible investment. We develop parameterized expectation algorithms which, on the basis of speed, accuracy and convenience of implementation, ap...

We offer a new perspective on games of irreversible investment under uncertainty in continuous time. The basis is a particular approach to solve the involved stochastic optimal control problems which allows to establish existence and uniqueness of an oligopolistic open loop equilibrium in a very general framework without reliance on any Markovian property. It simultaneously induces quite natura...

Military Draft and Economic Growth in OECD Countries Economic theory predicts that military conscription is associated with static inefficiencies as well as with dynamic distortions of the accumulation of human and physical capital. Relative to an economy with an all-volunteer force, output levels and growth rates should be lower in countries that rely on a military draft to recruit their army ...

We develop methods to compute equilibria in dynamic models with incomplete asset markets and heterogeneous agents. Using spline interpolation methods we approximate recursive trading policies of the agents and the equilibrium pricing functions. We explore various methods for determining the coe$cients of these approximations, including time iteration methods and acceleration techniques. Explori...

This paper considers the macroeconomic implications of a set of empirical studies finding a high degree of dispersion in preference heterogeneity. It develops a model with both uninsurable idiosyncratic income risk and risk aversion heterogeneity to quantify their effects on wealth inequality. The results show that with the available estimates of the risk aversion distribution from PSID data th...

This paper investigates currency and financial crises in an optimizing general equilibrium model. It is shown that a rise in current and expected future budget deficits generates a real exchange rate appreciation and a decumulation of external assets, leading up to a currency crisis when foreign reserves approximate a critical level. Strong empirical support for our model is obtained by a probi...