Essays On Heterogeneity In Macroeconomics

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Degree type
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate group
Economics
Discipline
Subject
Economics
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
2021-08-31T20:21:00-07:00
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Lee, Hanbaek
Contributor
Abstract

This dissertation is composed of three chapters. In the first two chapters, I study how micro-level heterogeneity affects aggregate fluctuations in an economy. The third chapter develops a novel computational method that solves the nonlinear dynamic stochastic general equilibrium with heterogeneous agents. In the first chapter, I study how heterogeneous firm-level lumpy investments affect the business cycle. I develop a heterogeneous-firm business cycle model where large firms’ lumpy investments closely follow the empirical patterns. In the model, synchronized large-scale investments of large firms significantly amplify productivity-driven aggregate fluctuations and lead to investment cycles even in the absence of aggregate shocks. In the second chapter, I study how the pass-through businesses of top income earners affect the aggregate fluctuations in the U.S. economy. Using a heterogeneous-household real business cycle model with endogenous labor supply and occupational choice, I argue that the business-income-driven top income inequality has made the following changes in the productivity-driven aggregate fluctuations: 1) lower volatility of aggregate output and 2) stronger negative correlation between labor hour and productivity. In the third chapter, I develop and test a novel algorithm that solves heterogeneous-agent models with aggregate uncertainty. This method computes the nonlinear dynamic stochastic general equilibrium with a high degree of accuracy. And the computational gain compared to existing methods is significant when a non-trivial market-clearing condition is present in the model.

Advisor
Jesús Fernández-Villaverde
Dirk Krueger
Date of degree
2021-01-01
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Recommended citation