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. Introduction to Distributional Macroeconomics (Greimel)

2. Household Balance Sheets and Recessions (Greimel)

6. Behavioral Macroeconomics (Huber)