Learning and Efficiency with Search Frictions

This paper studies the allocative efficiency in a Moscarini (2005)-type equilibrium search environment with learning. It is shown that the stationary equilibrium is efficient if and only if the Hosios condition holds no matter whether learning is about firm-specific human capital or about general human capital. However, the stationary equilibrium can never be efficient if externalities exist from unemployment. In contrast, even with externalities, the stationary equilibrium can be efficient under some modified Hosios condition if there is no uncertainty (standard Mortensen and Pissarides (1994)-type equilibrium search environment). The key intuition is that the equilibrium can only be efficient if firm-worker matching is formed and terminated efficiently.     

Measuring Search Frictions Using Japanese Microdata

This paper estimates individual‐level matching functions to measure search frictions in the Japanese labour market and presents the determinants of search duration. We employ administrative microdata that track the job search process of job seekers who left or lost their job in August 2005 and subsequently registered at their local public employment service. Our finding is that the matching function exhibits decreasing rather than constant returns‐to‐scale for job seekers and vacancies. We also find that after controlling for the benefits period, job seekers who lost their job involuntarily were more likely than those quitting voluntarily to exit from unemployment.     

Relative Price Changes, Wages and Unemployment in a Specific Factors Model with Search Frictions

This paper analyzes the effects of changes in the relative product price on wages and unemployment of a small open economy in a specific factors model characterized by search frictions. It shows that unemployment and wages move in opposite directions, i.e., high unemployment is associated with low wages and low unemployment with high wages. The reason for the employment effect is found to be individual wage bargaining.     

On the Efficiency of Job Search with Social Networks

This paper provides a simple matching model in which unemployed workers and employers can be matched together through social networks and through more efficient, and also more costly, methods. In this framework, decentralized decisions to utilize social networks in the job search process can be inefficient and give rise to multiple equilibria. More precisely, in a decentralized equilibrium, social networks can be overutilized, with respect to an efficient allocation, in some circumstances and underutilized in others. Moreover, the existence of different job search methods can give rise to a higher job search intensity than the efficient one. This is in sharp contrast with the standard result, derived in matching models, according to which search intensity is always too low if not efficient. Finally, in the presence of different job search methods, conditional unemployment benefits hikes, which can be used as a coordination device to improve welfare when individuals.     

大国兴起与国际经济摩擦——兼论中美贸易摩擦

在大国兴起过程中,特别是当一国成为贸易大国时,必然会引起国际分工格局和利益分配格局的巨大变化,这就致使新兴大国往往同现有国际体系和现有大国在经贸领域发生冲突,从而导致既得利益国家与新兴大国之间的博弃.此时,战略性贸易摩擦的出现就具有了一定的客观必然性.目前,中国经济增长举世瞩目,与此同时中美间的贸易摩擦也呈现出愈演愈烈的趋势.     

Inflation And Efficiency In A Search Economy*

We present a model in which purely monetary inflation systematically affects efficiency, welfare, and relative prices. The model focuses on the microeconomics of trade in search markets under inflation. Inflation, by increasing the cost of holding money, undermines the market's ability to sustain long‐term customer relationships. Because those relationships generate the most efficient transactions patterns, overall welfare unambiguously declines.     

Franchise Bidding Without Holdups: Utility Regulation with Efficient Pricing and Choice of Provider

The idea of franchise bidding, as a governance structure for regulating natural monopoly, has remained dormant for the last twenty years, during which the technology and regulation of natural monopoly has changed considerably, both in theory and in practice. Meanwhile, auction theory has advanced significantly, independently of regulatory economics, which has moved in a different direction, namely price-cap regulation. We seek to combine the effects of the changes in the technology of network industries and the advances in bidding theory and in regulatory economics toward the development of a rigorous model of franchise bidding. The model presented in this paper, which develops conditions for efficient outcomes, provides a benchmark to begin a reconsideration of the potential of franchise bidding. In particular, for the first time, we complete Demsetz' (1968) proposal by specifying (second-price) rules for bidding and for transfer of assets when the incumbent loses the bid at re-auction. The scheme features one bid determining simultaneously output pricing and asset transfer pricing, to address concerns of hold-up and opportunistic behavior in the event of a change in franchisee.     

Financial Frictions and Risky Corporate Debt

We offer clarifications on Cooley and Quadrini (2001) regarding financial frictions and risky corporate debt pricing. Even in a frictionless world, the promised rate on corporate debt is not identical across firms and across capital structures and it is not equal to the risk-free rate. Frictions are unnecessary for credit spreads to arise. Only if the macroeconomy is in actuality risk free or risk neutral do interest rates on corporate debt reflect default probabilities. To the extent that the firm's entire financial structure is traded, a bias in credit spreads introduces an exploitable arbitrage opportunity. Re-establishing no-arbitrage, firm dynamics move in the opposite direction to Cooley and Quadrini's.     

Fiscal Policy in a Growing Economy with Financial Frictions and Firm Heterogeneity

This paper constructs a tractable model of endogenous growth with financial frictions and firm heterogeneity. We introduce factor income tax, consumption tax as well as the government consumption into the base model and explore the growth effect of fiscal policy. We show that from the qualitative perspective, the long‐run effects of fiscal actions in our model are similar to those obtained in the representative agent models. However, the quantitative impacts of fiscal policy on long‐run growth in our setting can be substantially different from those established in the model where agents are homogeneous and there is no financial frictions.     

Firm Entry under Financial Frictions

How does a general‐equilibrium model behave when incorporating competitive firm entry that requires external finance? After conducting a steady‐state analysis, we reach three main results. First, the financial constraint has contractionary effects on both equity investment and the labor supply as they are inversely related to the marginal finance cost. Second, the dynamics of firm creation and destruction amplify the impact of changes in either productivity or banking efficiency due to procyclical firm entry. Third, a higher elasticity of substitution (that implies a lower mark‐up) cuts the number of firms and makes aggregate output fall.     

Frictions in Project-Based Supply of Permits

Emissions trading in climate change can entail large overall cost savings and transfers between developed and developing countries. However, the search for acceptable JI or CDM projects implies a deviation from the perfect market framework used in previous estimations. Our model combines the search market for projects with a frictionless permit market to quantify the supply-side frictions in the CO₂ market. We also decompose the effects of frictions into the effects of search friction, bargaining, and bilateralism. A calibration using previous cost estimates of CO₂ reductions illustrate changes in cost savings and allocative implications.     

微观基础的李嘉图模型及其比较利益分配——兼论中美贸易摩擦

本文将消费者偏好和国家规模引入李嘉图模型,通过一般均衡的方法分析了均衡的产量和价格,并探讨了国际贸易发生的条件及各种因素变化对参加贸易的各国国民福利的影响.在微观模型的基础上,通过一个博弈、谈判模型具体分析了国际比较利益的分割及其各国贸易模式的选择,较好的解释了国际贸易得益的分配问题.政策涵义是中美贸易争端不能采取报复性的关税或人为设置贸易壁垒来解决,而应当通过协商与对话来获得互利双赢.     

Social Status,Labour Market Frictions and Endogenous Growth

This paper develops an endogenous growth model that incorporates wealth‐enhanced preferences for social status and labour market frictions to investigate the role of social status in determining unemployment and long‐run growth. We show that the increase in the desire for social status reduces the unemployment rate, but its effect on long‐run growth is unclear. We then calibrate our model to the US economy and find that an increase in the desire for social status lowers the unemployment rate and enhances the economic growth rate in the long run.     

中国汽车产业政策与美国贸易政策的摩擦

改革开放以来,我国在许多领域推行了内容广泛的产业政策。然而,在世界经济一体化的今天,各国国内经济政策与其对外经贸的互动作用日益突出,贸易伙伴的反应常常在很大程度上决定着一国国内经济政策的可行性,因此,各国在制定任何一项产业发展政策时,都不能不顾及该政策对其贸易伙伴的影响及其可能作出的反应。显然,要考虑我国产业发展政策的可行性,就应当未雨绸缪,深入研究其与主要贸易伙伴贸易政策的矛盾。     

Multiple Equilibria and Minimum Wages in Labor Markets with Informational Frictions and Heterogeneous Production Technologies*

It is often argued that a mandatory minimum wage is binding only if the wage density displays a spike at it. In this article, we analyze a model with search frictions and heterogeneous production technologies, in which imposition of a minimum wage affects wages even though, after imposition, the lowest wage in the market exceeds the minimum wage. The model has multiple equilibria as a result of the fact that the reservation wage of the unemployed and the lowest production technology in use affect each other. Imposition of a minimum wage may improve social welfare.     

后危机时代贸易摩擦的转向与应对策略

后危机时代在日趋激烈的国际竞争中,传统的商品贸易摩擦逐渐转向了广义的经济摩擦,贸易保护工具也由经济转向了社会、道德、环境等社会生活的方方面面。特别是发达国家重振制造业的战略调整以及部分新经济体国家低成本产品的出口优势,直接戳住了我国目前出口贸易的软肋。解决此类问题的根本出路就在于,要突破单一商品进出口的传统模式,在资本及产业"引进来"与"走出去"上进行重新思考,在国际经济调整中,重新设计我国未来"引进来"与"走出去"的理念、方向、结构等宏观战略。     

金融摩擦、资本误配与全要素生产率

金融摩擦会导致企业间的资本误配,进而降低全要素生产率。本文基于Midrigan&Xu(2014)的分析框架,结合我国1998-2007年制造业企业微观数据,对由金融摩擦引起的生产效率损失分行业进行了估算。结果显示,资本误配造成了我国制造业18%-33%左右的生产效率损失,且在2003年后,随着外部融资环境的恶化,效率损失大幅增加。进一步研究发现,金融摩擦通过扭曲企业的进入和退出机制,进而加剧资本误配,抑制行业生产效率的改进。     

双重金融摩擦、企业目标转换与中国经济波动

本文构建了一个真实经济周期模型,首次将企业目标转换和双重金融摩擦因素融合为统一研究框架,并以此考察经济周期波动中信贷的需求和供给因素,进而分析双重金融摩擦因素在塑造经济周期波动态势中的作用。研究表明:(1)当银行与企业、银行与家庭间均存在金融摩擦时,顺周期的企业和银行资产负债表均会导致逆周期的企业外部融资溢价,对投资和产出产生双重加速效应,而缓解金融摩擦能够减弱上述加速效应进而有助于经济波动的平稳化;(2)由于家庭资产主要采取储蓄方式并且企业自有资金起到平滑信贷波动作用,信贷供给端摩擦产生的加速效应比需求端摩擦要弱;(3)企业目标转换通过经济结构渠道对金融摩擦的加速效应起到增强或弱化效果。因此,宏观调控政策应加强对企业和银行资产负债表周期性的关注,平抑由双重金融摩擦所带来的经济波动;合理界定政府与市场作用边界,国有企业非经济目标需要依据经济周期波动状况把握适度原则,充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用,更好发挥政府作用。     

同业市场摩擦、银行异质性与货币政策传导

同业拆借双方存在的信息不对称,改变了银行的资产负债管理行为,同业市场摩擦因而通过银行贷款决策影响货币政策传导.我国同业市场的特殊性又在于,存在着具有不同流动性充裕度和信用风险的大小银行,其中大银行可看作资金批发方,小银行主要是资金拆入方.针对这些特征,本文构建了不确定性条件下我国异质性商业银行资金运用的动态优化决策模型,推导不同类型银行的贷款投放决策,探讨货币政策信贷渠道的有效性.结论 是,同业市场摩擦阻碍了货币政策传导;面对货币政策冲击,不同类型银行反应不一;特殊的同业市场结构进一步阻塞了政策传导——若同业风险飙升,大银行将急剧减少资金拆出规模,货币政策传导遭遇梗阻并产生类"钱荒"现象.然后使用2007-2019年间279家中国商业银行的微观数据进行实证检验,验证了理论推断.最后针对性地提出了货币政策操作与金融改革的建议.对于深入理解我国货币市场运行,以及如何疏通我国货币政策传导问题,本文具有重要启示.