Engel and Wang (2008) argue that trade in durable goods is important for international real-businesscycle models to replicate the behavior of real imports and exports. We extend such a model with Calvostyle price stickiness. We find that the model with producer currency pricing (PCP) for investment goods and local currency pricing (LCP) for durable consumption performs better than the model wit...

Households’ insurance against shocks to income and asset values (that is, household risk management) is limited, especially for poor households. We argue that a trade-off between intertemporal financing needs and insurance across states explains this basic insurance pattern. In a model with limited enforcement, we show that household risk management is increasing in household net worth and inco...

Insurance has an intertemporal aspect as insurance premia have to be paid upfront. We argue that the financing aspect of insurance is key to understanding basic insurance patterns. In a model with limited enforcement, we show that insurance is globally monotone increasing in household net worth and income, incomplete, and precautionary. These results hold in economies with income risk, durable ...

This paper characterizes the labor supply and borrowing of a household facing collateral requirements that limit its debt and compel it to accumulate equity in its durable goods stock. The household’s discount rate exceeds the market rate of interest, so it would otherwise finance increased current consumption by borrowing against future wages. Collateral constraints generate a positive comovem...

The “neoclassical synthesis” sticky price model exhibits strange behavior when augmented with markets for durable goods with flexible prices. While in the data the output of durable goods responds strongly and positively to a loosening of monetary policy, in dynamic general equilibrium models a monetary expansion causes the output of flexibly priced durables to contract. In an instructive speci...

Simulation experiments are conducted, comparing the effects of a common reduction of CO2 emissions within the European Union to a Swedish unilateral decision to reduce CO2 emissions. A numerical general equilibrium model, GEME3, has been used as analytical tool. The model covers all European Union countries, with production disaggregated into 18 sectors. The 13 consumption goods included are cl...

This paper characterizes the labor supply and borrowing of a household facing collateral requirements that limit its debt and compel it to accumulate equity in its durable goods stock. The household's discount rate exceeds the market rate of interest, so it would otherwise finance increased current consumption by borrowing against future wages. Collateral constraints generate a positive comovem...