PUBLICATIONS
Firm-Level Uncertainty and the Transmission of Monetary Policy (with
Aeimit Lakdawala) [
Working Paper]
Forthcoming at The Review of Economics and Statistics
The Effect of Monetary Policy on Firm-Level Uncertainty (with
Aeimit Lakdawala) [
Working Paper]
Economics Letters, Vol 232, 111319, November 2023
The International Spillover Effects of US Monetary Policy Uncertainty (with
Aeimit Lakdawala and
Matthew Schaffer) [
Working Paper] [
Code] [
Online Appendix]
Journal of International Economics, Vol 133, 103525, November 2021
WORKING PAPERS
Monetary Policy and Firm Heterogeneity: The Role of Leverage Since the Financial Crisis (with
Min Fang and
Aeimit Lakdawala) [
PDF]
Revise and Resubmit at Management Science
Abstract: We show that the role of leverage in explaining firm-level responses to monetary policy changed around the 2007-09 financial crisis. Stock prices of firms with high leverage were less responsive to conventional monetary policy shocks in the pre-crisis period but have become more responsive to unconventional monetary policy since the crisis. Using expected volatility measures from firm-level options, we further document that financial markets have been aware of this change.
We then interpret these findings through a parsimonious three-period model of firm financing with default risk. The model highlights two competing channels: firms with high leverage face steeper borrowing costs reflecting their financial overhang, making them less responsive to policy that works through the risk-free rate; but, when policy compresses credit spread in bond markets, high-leverage firms benefit disproportionately. Before the crisis, conventional monetary policy worked mainly through risk-free rates, so the first channel dominated. Since the crisis, large-scale asset purchases have compressed credit spreads, strengthening the second channel.
Financial Consolidation, Corporate Finance and Firm Investment in the Business Cycle (with
Sotirios Kokas and
Raoul Minetti) [
PDF]
Currently Under Review
Abstract: We study the influence of financial consolidation on firms’ cyclical behavior. We construct a dynamic model in which banks extract rents from non-competitive lending relationships. Calibrating the model to US data, we show that after bank consolidation the weakening in firms’ bargaining power vis-à-vis banks enhances precautionary liquidity accumulation and equity issuance following positive shocks, increasing the shock sensitivity of investment. Using matched firm-bank data, we find that the US bank consolidation has raised the procyclicality of equity issuance, liquidity accumulation and investment for small publicly-traded firms. The analysis suggests that bank consolidation especially raises the relevance of productivity shocks.
Monetary Policy and Distributional Inflation: New Evidence on Age and Racial Heterogeneity (with
Aeimit Lakdawala) [
PDF]
Abstract: This paper investigates the heterogeneous effects of monetary policy on inflation across demographic groups, focusing on age and race. Using newly developed distributional Consumer Price Indices we find significant variation in how monetary policy shocks affect different segments of the population. Young people and Black and Native Americans experience larger declines in their group-specific CPIs following contractionary monetary policy shocks compared to other groups. We also document non-linear effects across income percentiles. These findings highlight the importance of considering inflation heterogeneity in monetary policy analysis and adds to the growing literature that finds that central bank actions can have unintended distributional consequences.
PROJECTS IN PROGRESS
The Impact of Local Price Stickiness on Monetary Policy Transmission (working paper coming soon)
with Nir Eilam
Monetary Policy, Job Search and Productivity
with Andre Mouton and Aeimit Lakdawala
The Geographic Effects of Unconventional Monetary Policy
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Western Economic Association International - June 2026 (Denver, CO)
Wake Forest Empirical Macroeconomics Workshop - March 2023 (Winston-Salem, NC)
The Society for Economic Measurement - August 2022 (Calgary, Canada)
International Association for Applied Econometrics - June 2022 (London, UK)
Computing in Economics and Finance - June 2022 (Dallas, TX)
I-85 Macroeconomics Workshop - April 2022 (Columbia, SC)
Southern Economic Association Meetings - November 2021 (Houston, TX)
Rotterdam School of Management's Corporate Finance Day - October 2021
RCEA Money, Macro and Finance Conference - July 2021
Workshop on Empirical Monetary Economics - December 2019 (Paris, France)
Midwest Macroeconomics Meetings - November 2019 (East Lansing, Michigan)
Computing in Economics and Finance - June 2019 (Ottawa, Canada)
