Contact Information
Department of Economics
Northwestern University
2211 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 224-420-0844
bardoczy@u.northwestern.edu
Personal website: www.bencebardoczy.com
Education
Ph.D., Economics, Northwestern University, 2021 (expected)
M.Sc., Economics, Institute for Advanced Studies & Vienna University of Technology, 2015
B.Sc., Economic Analysis, Corvinus University of Budapest, 2012
Primary Field of Specialization
Macroeconomics
Secondary Fields of Specialization
Monetary Policy, Labor Economics
Curriculum Vitae
Job Market Paper
Spousal Insurance and the Amplification of Business Cycles
Abstract: I document that spousal labor supply substantially mitigates the impact of cyclical labor income risk on married households. Motivated by this evidence, I present a macroeconomic model with incomplete markets in which households are heterogeneous by gender and marital status. Couples can smooth their consumption over the business cycle better than singles because (i) spouses rarely lose their jobs at the same time; and (ii) secondary earners can increase their labor supply on the extensive margin in response to a job loss of the primary earner. According to my estimated model, spousal insurance mitigates the volatility of aggregate consumption by about 40%. Spousal insurance acts as a powerful automatic stabilizer because it weakens the general-equilibrium feedback between unemployment risk and economic activity. My model clarifies the circumstances under which this automatic stabilizer is stronger or
weaker. Spousal insurance is particularly powerful in recessions caused by traditional demand shocks. It is less powerful in recessions caused by shocks like the current COVID epidemic..
Other Research Papers
Using the Sequence-Space Jacobian to Solve and Estimate Heterogeneous-Agent Models with Adrien Auclert, Matthew Rognlie and Ludwig Straub
Resubmitted to Econometrica
Brief abstract: We propose a general and highly efficient method for solving and estimating general equilibrium heterogeneous-agent models with aggregate shocks in discrete time.
MPCs, MPEs and Multipliers: A Trilemma for New Keynesian Models with Adrien Auclert and Matthew Rognlie
Revise and Resubmit at The Review of Economics and Statistics
Brief abstract: We establish an impossibility result for New Keynesian models with a frictionless labor market: these models cannot simultaneously match plausible estimates of marginal propensities to consume (MPCs), marginal propensities to earn (MPEs), and fiscal multipliers. A Heterogeneous Agent New Keynesian (HANK) model with sticky wages provides a solution to this trilemma.
References
Professor Martin Eichenbaum (committee chair)
Professor Matthias Doepke
Professor Matthew Rognlie
Professor Adrien Auclert