Research

This paper studies how expansionary monetary policy influences inequality in the United States, emphasizing financial income as a key channel. Using high-frequency monetary shocks and Gini coefficients from binned data, I find that easing reduces labor income inequality but raises total income and wealth inequality, as gains in financial income dominate. A Two-Agent New Keynesian model with a financial accelerator reproduces these patterns, and Bayesian estimation shows monetary shocks account for a notable share of inequality dynamics. Counterfactuals for the Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19 suggest accommodative policies may have unintentionally worsened inequality. 

Key words: Monetary policy, Inequality, Financial income

JEL Classification: E52, E44, D63

Preliminary paper

This paper examines how property taxation shapes housing wealth inequality. A simple model shows that higher property taxes can worsen inequality by reducing homeownership, while progressive taxes shift burdens toward high-value properties and mitigate this effect. Extending to a heterogeneous-agent model, I find that housing supply elasticity is crucial: inelastic markets allow tax-induced price changes to expand homeownership and reduce inequality. Lump-sum transfers from tax revenue also influence inequality through a similar channel, highlighting the joint role of tax design and general equilibrium forces. 

Key words: Wealth Inequality, Property Tax, General Equilibrium Effect, Progressive Taxation

JEL Classification: E62, R21, R31

SSRN Link

South Korea’s total fertility rate fell sharply from 1.24 in 2015 to 0.72 in 2023, coinciding with rising housing costs. A heterogeneous-agent life cycle model shows that about one-third of this decline (0.17 births per woman) stems from higher housing costs—captured by house prices, borrowing constraints, and mortgage interest burdens. Tighter credit limits and higher rates in particular delay childbirth, raising the age at first birth and contributing to Korea’s fertility decline. 

Keywords: Housing, Fertility, Mortgage

JEL Classification: J13, R21, G51

SSRN Link

This paper investigates whether FDI diffuses broadly or fosters divergence. Using firm- and project-level data from Vietnam, we find that productivity gains are concentrated among top-tier firms, widening the gap with bottom-tier firms in a statistically significant way. These results show that FDI’s impact varies across the productivity distribution and caution against relying solely on macro-level analyses. 

Keywords:  FDI, Firm Productivity, Polarization

JEL: F21, F63, O47

Paper Link

This paper examines the effect of monetary policy on wealth inequality in the United States using quarterly data from the Distributional Financial Accounts. I construct a Gini coefficient across five wealth groups and analyze its response to high-frequency-identified monetary shocks. Results suggest contractionary policy modestly reduces wealth inequality via lower equity values, but this effect is statistically insignificant and offset by reallocation toward interest-bearing assets. Real assets, such as housing, play a limited role in shaping these distributional dynamics.

Keywords: Monetary policy,  Wealth inequality,  Asset Portfolio

JEL: E52, E44, D63

Jornal Link  Online Appendix    Github Link

This paper analyzes the impact of introducing a CBDC in Korea on card fees and social welfare by extending Li, McAndrews, and Wang (2020). The optimal CBDC remuneration rate is estimated at 59bp, equal to consumers’ cash transaction cost, though it depends on design features such as accessibility and privacy. CBDC enhances welfare directly by offering a better means of payment and indirectly by lowering card fees and goods prices as card networks respond. While it promotes financial inclusion, the benefit’s regressive-transfer structure may exacerbate inequality. 

Keywords: CBDC, payment market, card fee, optimal CBDC rate, financial inclusion, two-sided markets

JEL: E41, E42, G21

PDF file,   Presentation slides, Github Link

This paper assesses how raising monetary policy rates could affect the vulnerability of the financial institutions exposure to the household sector using the Survey of Household Finances and Living Conditions data in Korea. To measure the financial vulnerability, I calculate the probability of default (PD), exposure at default (EAD), and loss given default (LGD) from the micropanel data. The main result of the stress test indicates that the aggregate risk deriving by interest rate hikes is still within manageable levels for financial institutions since the delinquency rate and the expected loss less than the historical peaks. However, the stress test results also show that the non-bank sectors are more vulnerable than the bank sector and that increasing policy rate non-linearly exacerbates the household financial fragility.

Keywords: stress test, monetary policy, household debt

JEL: D10, E58, G21

PDF file,   Github Link