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Distributional Macroeconomics in the Long and Short Run

Project description

Analysing distributional macroeconomics in the short and long run

Distributional macroeconomics deals with macroeconomic questions in terms of distributions of microeconomic variables such as income or wealth rather than just aggregates. This approach makes it possible to examine the distributional implications of macroeconomic trends, shocks or policies, and to examine the two-way interaction between these distributions and the macroeconomy. With this in mind, the EU-funded DisMaLS project aims to advance the distributional macroeconomics agenda both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, it will do so by developing new theories of the income and wealth distributions and their interactions with the macroeconomy in both the short and long term. Empirically, it will analyse high-quality Norwegian administrative data to enrich these theories.

Objective

A key development in the “dismal science” has been the incorporation of explicit heterogeneity into models of the macroeconomy. As a result of taking micro data seriously, these theories study macroeconomic questions in terms of distributions of microeconomic variables like income or wealth rather than just aggregates. This approach opens up the door to examining the distributional implications of macroeconomic trends, shocks or policies, and to examine the two-way interaction between these distributions and the macroeconomy.

DisMaLS will advance this “distributional macroeconomics” agenda both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically, it will do so by developing new theories of the income and wealth distributions and their interactions with the macroeconomy in both the long and short run. Empirically, DisMaLS will bring to the table high-quality Norwegian administrative data to discipline and enrich these theories.

In terms of long-run trends, a striking feature regarding economic growth in many developed countries is that it has been unequally distributed. For example, in the U.S. real household incomes have grown by roughly two percent per year on average but income percentiles corresponding to the bottom 50% of the distribution have stagnated since the 1970s. DisMaLS will use its theory of income and wealth distribution to examine the potential drivers of these distributional trends, for example automation and tax policy.

Turning to the short-run, DisMaLS aims to understand the causes of infrequent but large economic crises, like the Great Recession. I aim to develop a quantitative macroeconomic theory that incorporates asset price booms driven by individuals switching out of liquid assets to buy real or illiquid financial assets, and crashes driven by the reverse movement. As part of the project, I aim to develop a new methodology for solving heterogeneous agent models with aggregate risk and both micro and macro non-linearities.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG

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Host institution

LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 598 433,00
Address
Houghton Street 1
WC2A 2AE London
United Kingdom

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Region
London Inner London — West Westminster
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 598 433,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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