In research summary you will be able to find an extended description of my past, current and future research. Below is a brief summary. The body of my published and ongoing research encompasses four broad areas. In the first area I have examined various aspects of monetary policy, volatility and the banking system. A particular focus of my work is the extent to which the conduct of monetary policy and bank regulation may either enhance or reduce the scope in which to observe multiple equilibria. This issue is particularly important because in the former case we could observe economic fluctuations that arise purely from interactions between market participants, rather than from exogenous shocks that might impact the economy. These possibilities have important implications for the design of optimal policies. Given different various monetary environments facing different frictions, I have also studied and characterized optimal monetary and fiscal policies. The second major research area is devoted to studying and applying the theory of dynamical systems to macroeconomic models. During the last several decades the study of nonlinear dynamical systems has been introduced in many disciplines. The study of macroeconomics cannot be completely understood without the use of a dynamic process. Many macroeconomic concepts rely on intertemporal tradeoffs, thus inherently embracing the concepts and methodology of dynamical systems. In particular, I study the possibility of chaotic dynamics which involves forecasting difficulties arising from models with multiple equilibria, and the complexities in models with costly information. Another research avenue that I have been exploring is to determine the consequences of the different specifications of habit formation for volatility of macroeconomic aggregates as well as optimal policy. A noted “shortcoming” of the baseline Real Business Cycle models is that inflation has virtually zero persistence. Habits allow consumers larger consumption-smoothing opportunities or make consumption-smoothing more desirable. With the desire for and/or the opportunities for consumption-smoothing enhanced, the real interest rate is more persistent relative to a model with neither capital nor habits. Finally, this desire for consumption-smoothing has important implications for the design of optimal policies, a research topic that I am examining. In addition to these three broad research areas, over the past few years I have also been analyzing how different aspects of the macroeconomic environment can affect different health outcomes. This is of paramount importance to the development of alternative public policies that ameliorate health problems. |