Ben Moll on the Basics of HANK Models and How They Can Be Applied to Policymaking

Ben Moll is a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, and is well known for his work on income and wealth distribution in macroeconomics and its implications for policy. Ben joins the show today to talk about this work and provide a look into the growing field of heterogeneous agent models. David and Ben also discuss the history of macro thought, the implications of different transmission mechanisms of monetary policy, and what HANK models mean for forward guidance and other more general makeup policies.   The transcript for the episode can be found here: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings   Ben's Twitter: @ben_moll Ben's LSE website: https://benjaminmoll.com/   Related Links:   *Monetary Policy According to HANK* by Greg Kaplan, Ben Moll, and Giovanni Violante https://www.princeton.edu/~moll/HANK.pdf   *Household Balance Sheet Channels of Monetary Policy: A Back of the Envelope Calculation for the Euro Area* by Jiri Slacalek, Oreste Tristani, and Giovanni Violante https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=14245   *Heterogeneous Agents Macroeconomics Has a Long History, and it Raises Many Questions* by Beatrice Cherrier https://beatricecherrier.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/heterogeneous-agent-macroeconomics-has-a-long-history-and-it-raises-many-questions/   David's blog: macromarketmusings.blogspot.com David's Twitter: @DavidBeckworth