Abstract

This dissertation is organized into three chapters, each offering novel insights into macroeconomic theory and practice. While the chapters address distinct phenomena, a common thread runs throughout: each study examines a transmission mechanism---whether of monetary shocks, normative change, or academic strategies---and underscores the importance of heterogeneity and dynamic adjustment in macroeconomic outcomes. In Chapter 1, I explore one of the most direct channels of monetary policy transmission---the refinancing window in the housing market. By exploiting comprehensive mortgage data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) spanning several decades, the analysis identifies episodes of heightened refinancing activity as quasi-natural experiments. Regions characterized by higher initial house prices and incomes tend to experience larger refinancing booms, which in turn generate significant impacts on employment and consumption. This study illuminates the role of long--term debt contracts, particularly residential mortgages, in transmitting monetary policy into the real economy. Such technical financial decisions, when aggregated across regions, play a central role in shaping macroeconomic dynamics. Chapter 2, coauthored with Antonio Cabrales, David Ramos Mu\~noz, and \'{A}ngel S\'anchez, broadens the macroeconomic inquiry to issues of sustainability and long--term policy challenges. Despite over fifty years of scientific investigation, climate change has translated unevenly into political and institutional action. In this chapter we construct a Climate Change Index (CCI) by tracking the frequency of climate-related mentions in diverse sources---from mainstream media and European parliamentary questions to scientific journals and central bank speeches. Employing text analysis and vector autoregression (VAR) methods, our study traces how concern about climate change has gradually permeated public debate and policymaking. Notably, while natural science journals have long engaged with the issue, our findings reveal that institutional actors such as the European Parliament and central banks have only recently begun to respond to climate signals, often in tandem with media surges. This contribution advances our understanding of how long--run challenges are communicated and eventually institutionalized, highlighting the interplay between social norms, media narratives, and policy agendas. Chapter 3, coauthored with Harris Dellas, Carlos Garriga, and Christian Zimmermann, shifts the focus to the academic labor market---the arena where economic ideas are produced, debated, and disseminated. Within the ``publish or perish'' paradigm, early-career scholars face a critical choice: whether to concentrate narrowly in a single field or to diversify their research output across multiple topics. Drawing on comprehensive data from the RePEc database and using classification measures derived from JEL and NEP codes, we introduce a Specialization--Diversification Index (SDI) to quantify the breadth of an economist’s research portfolio. Our analysis reveals that, contrary to conventional wisdom favoring specialization for short--term gains, a diversified research portfolio is associated with higher quality-adjusted output, broader citation impact, and even a lower risk of academic attrition. By examining both cross-sectional and dynamic patterns, and by addressing potential endogeneity through an instrumental variables approach based on coauthorship networks, this chapter provides novel insights into how research strategy shapes individual careers and the collective production of economic knowledge. Indeed, the academic labor market is itself a critical component of macroeconomic dynamics, for the ideas that inform policy and public debate originate from these very institutions.

Committee Chair

Francisco Buera

Committee Members

Carlos Garriga; Ana Babus; Juan Sánchez; Rody Manuelli

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Author's Department

Economics

Author's School

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Document Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

4-28-2025

Language

English (en)

Download

Included in

Economics Commons

Share

COinS