Fernando Alvarez (economist)

Fernando Enrique Alvarez is an Argentine macroeconomist. He is professor of economics at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. in Economics at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in 1989 and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1994. He was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2008.

Fernando Alvarez's most influential contribution seems to be his work with Urban Jermann (Wharton) on endogenously incomplete markets. They show how the limited commitment model of Kehoe and David Levine and also of Narayana Kocherlakota can be decentralized with certain borrowing constraints. They also showed how this model could explain some feature of asset prices, such as the equity premium. Several papers have used their model later on to explain other macroeconomic phenomena.

Fernando Alvarez has also presented a new estimate of the welfare cost of business cycles, which is based on observed asset prices (with Urban Jermann). His other work includes models of monetary economies with segmented markets and search models with incomplete markets.

Published Works

• "Fixed-Term Employment Contracts in an Equilibrium Search Model." Fernando Alvarez and Marcelo Veracierto; Journal of Economic Theory, 2012, 147(5), pp. 1725–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jet.2012.05.015
• "Durable Consumption and Asset Management with Transaction and Observation Costs." Fernando Alvarez, Luigi Guiso and Francesco Lippi; American Economic Review, 2012, 102(5), pp. 2272–300.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.102.5.2272

• "Optimal Price Setting with Observation and Menu Costs." Fernando E. Alvarez, Francesco Lippi and Luigi Paciello; The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2011, 126(4), pp. 1909–60.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr043

• "Sluggish Responses of Prices and Inflation to Monetary Shocks in an Inventory Model of Money Demand*." Fernando Alvarez, Andrew Atkeson and Chris Edmond; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2009, 124(3), pp. 911–67.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2009.124.3.911

• "Financial Innovation and the Transactions Demand for Cash." Fernando Alvarez and Francesco Lippi; Econometrica, 2009, 77(2), pp. 363–402.

http://dx.doi.org/10.3982/ECTA7451

• "General Equilibrium Analysis of the Eaton-Kortum Model of International Trade." Fernando Alvarez and Robert E. Lucas, Jr.; Journal of Monetary Economics, 2007, 54(6), pp. 1726–68.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2006.07.006

• "If Exchange Rates Are Random Walks, Then Almost Everything We Say About Monetary Policy Is Wrong." Fernando Alvarez, Andrew Atkeson and Patrick J. Kehoe; American Economic Review, 2007, 97(2), pp. 339–45.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.97.2.339

• "Using Asset Prices to Measure the Persistence of the Marginal Utility of Wealth." Fernando Alvarez and Urban J. Jermann; Econometrica, 2005, 73(6), pp. 1977–2016.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2005.00643.x

• "Commentary on 'Organizational Dynamics over the Business Cycle: A View on Jobless Recoveries.'." Fernando Alvarez; Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review, 2005, 87(4), pp. 581.

http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/05/07/Alvarez.pdf

• "Using Asset Prices to Measure the Cost of Business Cycles." Fernando Alvarez and Urban J. Jermann; Journal of Political Economy, 2004, 112(6), pp. 1223–56.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/424738

• "The Time Consistency of Optimal Monetary and Fiscal Policies." Fernando Alvarez, Patrick J. Kehoe and Pablo Andrés Neumeyer; Econometrica, 2004, 72(2), pp. 541–67.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3598912

• "Money, Interest Rates, and Exchange Rates with Endogenously Segmented Markets." Fernando Alvarez, Andrew Atkeson and Patrick J Kehoe; Journal of Political Economy, 2002, 110(1), pp. 73.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/324389

• "Interest Rates and Inflation." Fernando Alvarez, Robert E. Lucas, Jr. and Warren E. Weber; American Economic Review, 2001, 91(2), pp. 219–25.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2677763

• "Quantitative Asset Pricing Implications of Endogenous Solvency Constraints." Fernando Alvarez and Urban J. Jermann; Review of Financial Studies, 2001, 14(4), pp. 1117–51.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696737

• "Severance Payments in an Economy with Frictions." Fernando Alvarez and Marcelo Veracierto; Journal of Monetary Economics, 2001, 47(3), pp. 477–98.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3932(01)00058-7

• "Comment on 'the Benefits of Dollarization When Stabilization Policy Lacks Credibility and Financial Markets Are Imperfect'." Fernando Alvarez; Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2001, 33(2), pp. 475–81.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2673911

External links

• (home page)