Zach Mazlish
zmazlish.bsky.social
Zach Mazlish
@zmazlish.bsky.social
Econ PhD student @ Oxford Econ.
I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me.
Writing: jzmazlish.substack.com
Website: jzacharymazlish.com
5) This is pure speculation, but I am tempted to think the fixed costs of re-optimizing one's portfolio are also the biggest reason financial markets are (surprisingly?) "inelastic"
cowles.yale.edu/sites/defaul...
cowles.yale.edu
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM
For evidence that specifically *optimization* costs lead to fixed costs of price changes:
econweb.umd.edu/~stevens/pap...
The fixed costs of wage change papers describe their costs as “negotiation” costs, but I am inclined to think re-optimization costs are also important.
econweb.umd.edu
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM
4) Two recent papers have fixed costs in wage adjustments, which help rationalize why workers dislike inflation and why workers' real wages fell in the recent inflation episode:
jadhazell.github.io/website/draf...
www.nber.org/papers/w3323...
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM
3) Arguably, price and wage stickiness is primarily due to fixed re-optimization costs.
@basilhalperin.com shows us that if price rigidities are due to fixed costs, something like NGDP targeting is optimal monetary policy (rather than inflation targeting)
basilhalperin.com/papers/halpe...
basilhalperin.com
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM
2) Default asset allocations in 401(k) plans can have a massive effect on households' stock/bond allocations: typical HH shares of wealth in the stock-market might be ~10-20pp higher if 401(k) defaults were target date funds rather than money market funds
tinyurl.com/47mt6m2k
tinyurl.com
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM
1) If you give people cash, many stick to a rule of thumb of "spend/save it all" until the transfer crosses some threshold where re-optimizing becomes worthwhile.
=> response of the economy to stimulus checks is very sensitive to the size of those checks
joelflynn.com/wp-content/u...
joelflynn.com
December 9, 2024 at 7:01 PM