Essays in Macro-Finance

Abstract

This thesis is motivated by the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008. The financial crises posed a challenge for economics - both in terms of understanding the events that were unfolding and in terms of understanding the effectiveness of the policies that were put in place as a response. Broadly speaking, the first two chapters of this thesis contributes to the existing literature with respect to the former, while the last three chapters contributes with respect to the latter.