Federal Reserve

Mateo Velásquez-GiraldoSurvey measurements of households' expectations about U.S. equity returns show substantial heterogeneity and large departures from the historical distribution of actual returns. The average household perceives a lower probability of positive returns and a greater probability of extreme returns than history has exhibited. I build a life-cycle model of saving and portfolio choices that incorporates beliefs estimated to match these survey measurements of expectations.

Lawrence J. Christiano, Martin Eichenbaum, and Benjamin K. JohannsenResearchers typically compare inflation in the new Keynesian (NK) model to published inflation measures constructed from indices like the CPI. Inflation in the standard NK model without price indexation is bounded above. The model analogue of fixed-weight inflation measures, like the CPI, is not.

Joachim Jungherr, Matthias Meier, Timo Reinelt, and Immo SchottWe provide novel empirical evidence that firms’ investment is more responsive to monetary policy when a higher fraction of their debt matures. In a heterogeneous firm New Keynesian model with financial frictions and endogenous debt maturity, two channels explain this finding: (1.) Firms with more maturing debt have larger roll-over needs and are therefore more exposed to fluctuations in the real interest rate (roll-over risk).

Daniel A. Dias, Christine Richmond, and Grant WestfahlThis paper investigates the duration of market exclusion following a sovereign default and its resolution. We employ multiple definitions of market access, differentiating between gross versus net borrowing and partial versus full access, to measure the time it takes for countries to regain entry into international capital markets following a sovereign default and resolution.