Topics in Distributional Macroeconomics

The term “distributional macroeconomics” was introduced by Benjamin Moll as a replacement for “macroeconomics with heterogeneous agents” to promote

the view that the macroeconomy is a distribution of state variables (e.g. income and wealth).

This course will explore some implications of income and wealth heterogeneity for macroeconomic dynamics and macroeconomic policy. First, we

want to understand how secular trends (falling interest rates and rising debt) are connected to rising inequality. And second, we want to understand how

heterogeneity matters for the aggregate response to macroeconomic shocks.

The focus of the course is on topics, rather than computational methods. (These are covered in second year electives.) We will use simplified models to

replicate results from papers and compare the results to empirical evidence. For most topics, we will provide ready-to-run code in the form of interactive

Pluto.jl notebooks.

Topics

1. Consumer Credit and Default (Greimel)

2. Household Balance Sheets and Recessions (Greimel)

3. Behavioral Macroeconomics (Huber)

4. Inequality, Interest Rates and Household Debt (Greimel & Perotti)

5. Monetary Policy, Heterogeneity and HANK (Greimel)