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Journal Article
What Is Driving Student Debt in the Eighth District?
Tuition appears to be a bigger driver of student debt growth in the Eighth District than in the U.S. as a whole.
Journal Article
The Local-Spillover Decomposition of an Aggregate Causal Effect
This article presents a method to decompose the causal effects of U.S. defense spending on income into a local effect and a spillover effect using panel data. We estimate positive local and spillover multipliers. By construction, the sum provides an estimate of the aggregate multiplier, which is slightly greater than one in our benchmark specification. Using disaggregate data improves precision relative to using aggregate data alone. More generally, we provide a template to conduct inference on local, spillover, and aggregate causal effects in a unified framework.
Working Paper
When Liquidity Matters: Firm Balance Sheets during Large Crises
We study how aggregate shocks shape the joint dynamics of credit spreads, debt, and liquid asset holdings for nonfinancial firms, focusing on the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19. Both episodes saw sharp credit spread increases and investment declines, but debt and liquidity fell during the GFC and rose during COVID-19. Cross-sectionally, leverage drove spreads and investment in the GFC, while liquidity dominated during COVID-19. We build a macro-finance model of firm capital structure with a liquidity motive for working capital. Calibrated to data, it attributes the GFC to real and ...
Working Paper
When Liquidity Matters: Firm Balance Sheets during Large Crises
We study how aggregate shocks shape the joint dynamics of credit spreads, debt, and liquid asset holdings for nonfinancial firms, focusing on the Great Financial Crisis(GFC) and COVID-19. Both episodes saw sharp credit spread increases and investment declines, but debt and liquidity fell during the GFC and rose during COVID-19. Crosssectionally, leverage drove spreads and investment in the GFC, while liquidity dominated during COVID-19. We build a macro-finance model of firm capital structure with a liquidity motive for working capital. Calibrated to data, it attributes the GFC to real and ...
Working Paper
When Liquidity Matters: Firm Balance Sheets during Large Crises
We study how aggregate shocks shape the joint dynamics of credit spreads, debt, and liquid asset holdings for nonfinancial firms, focusing on the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19. Both episodes saw sharp credit spread increases and investment declines, but debt and liquidity fell during the GFC and rose during COVID-19. Cross-sectionally, leverage drove spreads and investment in the GFC, while liquidity dominated during COVID-19. We build a macro-finance model of firm capital structure with a liquidity motive for working capital. Calibrated to data, it attributes the GFC to real and ...
Working Paper
A Local-Spillover Decomposition of the Causal Effect of U.S. Defense Spending Shocks
This paper decomposes the causal effect of government defense spending into: (i) a local (or direct) effect, and (ii) a spillover (or indirect) effect. Using state-level defense spending data, we show that a negative cross-state spillover effect explains the existing simultaneous findings of a low aggregate multiplier and a high local multiplier. We show that enlisting disaggregate data improves the precision of aggregate effect estimates, relative to using aggregate time series alone. Moreover, we compare two-step efficient GMM with two alternative moment weighting approaches used in ...
Working Paper
Corporate Borrowing, Investment, and Credit Policies during Large Crises
We compare the evolution of corporate credit spreads during two large crises: the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. These crises initially featured spread increases of similar magnitudes, but the pandemic was much more short-lived. The microdata reveal that firm leverage was a more important predictor of credit spreads during the GFC, but that firm liquidity was more important during the pandemic. In a model of the firm capital structure that is calibrated to match the joint distribution of leverage, liquidity, and credit spreads, we show that the GFC resembled a ...
Working Paper
Credit and Liquidity Policies during Large Crises
We study the evolution of firm financials during two large crises: the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. While the two crises featured similar increases in corporate spreads, corporate debt and liquid asset holdings moved in opposite directions. The micro-data reveal that firm leverage was a more important predictor of firm-level credit spreads and investment during the GFC, but that firm funding liquidity was more important during the pandemic. We augment a dynamic model of firm capital structure with an explicit motive to hold liquid assets, and calibrate it to match ...
Working Paper
Credit and Liquidity Policies during Large Crises
We compare firms’ financials during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19. While the two crises featured similar increases in credit spreads, debt and liquid assets decreased during the GFC, but increased during COVID-19. In the cross section, leverage was the main determinant of credit spreads and investment during the GFC, but liquidity was more important during COVID-19. We augment a quantitative model of firm capital structure with a motive to hold liquid assets. The GFC resembled a combination of productivity and financial shocks, while COVID-19 also featured liquidity shocks. ...
Working Paper
Credit and Liquidity Policies during Large Crises
We compare firms’ financials during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19. While the two crises featured similar increases in credit spreads, debt and liquid assets decreased during the GFC but increased during COVID-19. In the cross-section, leverage was the primary determinant of credit spreads and investment during the GFC, but liquidity was more important during COVID-19. We augment a quantitative model of firm capital structure with a motive to hold liquid assets. The GFC resembled a combination of productivity and financial shocks, while COVID-19 also featured liquidity ...