Search Results
Working Paper
Inequality in the Welfare Costs of Disinflation
We use an incomplete markets economy to quantify the distribution of welfare gains and losses of the US “Volcker” disinflation. In the long run households prefer low inflation, but disinflation requires a transition period and a redistribution from net nominal borrowers to net nominal savers. Welfare costs may be significant for households with nominal liabilities. When calibrated to match the micro and macro moments of the early 1980s high-inflation environment and the actual changes in the nominal interest rate and inflation during the Volcker disinflation, nearly 60 percent of all ...
Journal Article
Business Dynamism in the Eighth District
Business dynamism rates in the Federal Reserve’s Eighth District are about 1 percentage point lower than in the rest of the country.
Working Paper
The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium
This paper seeks to understand the forces that maintain racial segregation and the Black-White gap in college attainment, as well as their interactions with place-based policy interventions. We incorporate race into an overlapping-generations spatial-equilibrium model with parental investment and neighborhood spillovers. Race matters due to: (i) a Black-White wage gap, (ii) amenity externalities—households care about their neighborhood’s racial composition—and (iii) additional barriers to moving for Black households. We find that these forces account for 71% of the racial segregation ...
Do Congested Ports Cause Higher Shipping Costs?
An analysis of changes in the cost to ship to major U.S. ports suggests that rising costs varied more by the country of origin than by the port of entry.
Journal Article
Income Volatility as a Barrier to Food Stamp Takeup
Families with greater volatility in their incomes had more switches in food stamp eligibility and lower rates of food stamp usage when they were eligible.
Working Paper
The Geography of Business Dynamism and Skill Biased Technical Change
This paper shows that the growing regional disparities in the U.S. since 1980 can be explained by firms endogenously responding to a skill-biased technology shock. With the introduction of a new skill-biased technology that is high fixed cost but low marginal cost, firms endogenously adopt more in big cities, cities that offer abundant amenities for high-skilled workers, and cities that are more productive in using high-skilled labor. In cities with more adoption, small and unproductive firms are more likely to exit the market, increasing the equilibrium rate of turnover or business ...
Investigating the Role of Geography in Economics
Hannah Rubinton, an economist at the St. Louis Fed, explores how geography might affect one’s college attainment.
SNAP Benefits and the Volatility of Food Spending
Food spending is more volatile for families enrolled in SNAP than for families with similar incomes but not enrolled in the federal nutrition program.
Working Paper
Inequality in the Welfare Costs of Disinflation
We use an incomplete markets economy to quantify the distribution of welfare gains and losses of the US “Volcker” disinflation. In the long run households prefer low inflation, but disinflation requires a transition period and a redistribution from net nominal borrowers to net nominal savers. Welfare costs may be significant for households with nominal liabilities. When calibrated to match the micro and macro moments of the early 1980s high-inflation environment and the actual changes in the nominal interest rate and inflation during the Volcker disinflation, nearly 60 percent of all ...
The Impact of Work from Home on Interstate Migration in the U.S.
An analysis of work patterns suggests that the rise in interstate migration since 2020 has largely been the result of an increased share of people working from home.