Lagos Poster

Poster promoting the Lagos lectur

A Model for the Schottky Anomaly in Metallic Nd2−yCeyCuO4Nd_{2-y}Ce_{y}CuO_{4}

We present a simple model for the doped compound $Nd_{2-y}Ce_{y}CuO_{4}$, in order to explain some recent experimental results on the latter. Within a Hartree-Fock context, we start from an impurity Anderson-like model and consider the magnetic splitting of the $Nd$-$4f$ ground state Kramers doublet due to exchange interactions with the ordered $Cu$ moments. Our results are in very good agreement with the experimental data, yielding a Schottky anomaly peak for the specific heat that reduces its amplitude, broadens and shifts to lower temperatures, upon $Ce$ doping. For overdoped compounds at low temperatures, the specific heat behaves linearly and the magnetic susceptibility is constant. A smooth transition from this Fermi liquid like behavior ocurrs as temperature is increased and at high temperatures the susceptibility exhibits a Curie-like behavior. Finally, we discuss some improvements our model is amenable to incorporate.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, and 13 reference

Asset prices, liquidity, and monetary policy in the search theory of money

I present a search-based model in which money coexists with equity shares on a risky aggregate endowment. Agents can use equity as a means of payment, so shocks to equity prices translate into aggregate liquidity shocks that disrupt the mechanism of exchange. I characterize a family of optimal monetary policies, and find that the resulting equity prices are independent of monetary considerations. I also study monetary policies that target a constant, but nonzero, nominal interest rate, and find that to the extent that a financial asset is valued as a means to facilitate transactions, the asset’s real rate of return will include a liquidity return that depends on monetary considerations. Through this liquidity channel, persistent deviations from an optimal monetary policy can cause the real prices of assets that can be used to relax trading constraints to exhibit persistent deviations from their fundamental values.

A Model of TFP

This paper proposes an aggregative model of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) in the spirit of Houthakker (1955-1956). It considers a frictional labor market where production units are subject to idiosyncratic shocks and jobs are created and destroyed as in Mortensen and Pissarides (1994). An aggregate production function is derived by aggregating across production units in equilibrium. The level of TFP is explicitly shown to depend on the underlying distribution of shocks as well as on all the characteristics of the labor market as summarize by the job-destruction decision. The model is also used to study the effects of labor-market policies on the level of measured TFP.

Inside and outside money

A distinction is drawn between outside money - money that is either of a fiat nature or backed by some asset that is not in zero net supply within the private sector - and inside money, which is an asset backed by any form of private credit that circulates as a medium of exchange.Money

Asset prices and liquidity in an exchange economy

I develop an asset-pricing model in which financial assets are valued for their liquidity - the extent to which they are useful in facilitating exchange - as well as for being claims to streams of consumption goods. The implications for average asset returns, the equity-premium puzzle and the risk-free rate puzzle, are explored in a version of the model that nests the work of Mehra and Prescott (1985).Asset pricing ; Liquidity (Economics)