The author argues that the preponderance of theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence suggests a positive first order relationship between financial development and economic growth. There is evidence that the financial development level is a good predictor of future rates of economic growth, capital accumulation, and technological change. Moreover, cross-country, case-style, industry level and firm-level analysis document extensive periods when financial development crucially affects the speed and pattern of economic development. The author explains what the financial system does and how it affects, and is affected by, economic growth. Theory suggests that financial instruments, markets and institutions arise to mitigate the effects of information and transaction costs. A growing literature shows that differences in how well financial systems reduce information and transaction costs influence savings rates, investment decisions, technological innovation, and long-run growth rates. A less developed theoretical literature shows how changes in economic activity can influence financial systems. The author advocates a functional approach to understanding the role of financial systems in economic growth. This approach focuses on the ties between growth and the quality of the functions provided by the financial systems. The author discourages a narrow focus on one financial instrument, or a particular institution. Instead, the author addresses the more comprehensive question: What is the relationship between financial structure and the functioning of the financial system?

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Financial development and economic growth : views and agenda

Part 1 Unemployment in the model of balanced growth: the labour market long-run equilibrium and balanced growth adjustment dynamics. Part 2 further ananlysis of the labour market: search intensity and job advertising.

Equilibrium Unemployment Theory

This paper argues that the textbook search and matching model cannot generate the observed business-cycle-frequency fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies in response to shocks of a plausible magnitude. In the United States, the standard deviation of the vacancy-unemployment ratio is almost 20 times as large as the standard deviation of average labor productivity, while the search model predicts that the two variables should have nearly the same volatility. A shock that changes average labor productivity primarily alters the present value of wages, generating only a small movement along a downward-sloping Beveridge curve (unemploymentvacancy locus). A shock to the separation rate generates a counterfactually positive correlation between unemployment and vacancies. In both cases, the model exhibits virtually no propagation. (JEL E24, E32, J41, J63, J64)

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The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies

This paper surveys the microfoundations, empirical evidence, and estimation issues underlying the aggregate matching function. There is no consensus yet on microfoundations but one is emerging on estimation. An aggregate, constant returns, Cobb-Douglas matching function with hires as a function of vacancies and unemployment has been successfully estimated for several countries. Recent work has utilized disaggregated data to go beyond aggregate estimates, with many refinements and suggestions for future research. The paper discusses spatial aggregation issues, and implications of on-the-job search and of the timing of stocks and flows for estimated matching functions.

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Looking into the Black Box: A Survey of the Matching Function

The venture captial industry in the United States has grown dramatically over the last two decades Annual inflows to venture funds have expanded from virtually zero in the mid-1970s to more than US$9 billion in 1997 Many of the most visible new firms -including Apple Computer, Genentech, Intel, Lotus, Microsoft and Yahoo - have been backed by venture capital funds Yet despite this tremendous growth and its visible success, venture capital remains a mysterious industry Numerous misconceptions persist about the nature and role of venture capitalists Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner's extensive research on venture capital organizations is based largely on original data sets developed through close relationships with institutional investors in venture capital funds and investment advisors "The Venture Capital Cycle" synthesizes their path-breaking work After an historical overview, the book looks at the formation of funds, the investment of the funds in operating companies and the liquidation of these investments The concluding chapter provides a road map for future research in this growing area Three themes run throughout the book The first is that all venture capitalists confront tremendous incentive and information problems The second is that because the various stages of the venture capital processes are related, the entire process is best viewed as a cycle The third is that, unlike most financial markets, the venture capital industry adjusts very slowly to shifts in the supply of capital and the demand for financing

The venture capital cycle

We analyze economies in which individuals specialize in consumption and production and meet randomly over time in a way that implies that trade must be bilateral and quid pro quo Nash equilibria in trading strategies are characterized Certain goods emerge endogenously as media of exchange, or commodity money, depending both on their intrinsic properties and on extrinsic beliefs There are also equilibria with genuine fiat currency circulating as the general medium of exchange We find that equilibria are not generally Pareto optimal and that introducing fiat currency into a commodity money economy may unambiguously improve welfare Velocity, acceptability, and liquidity are discussed

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On Money as a Medium of Exchange

Search-theoretic models of monetary exchange are based on explicit descriptions of the frictions that make money essential. However, tractable versions of these models typically make strong assumptions that render them ill suited for monetary policy analysis. We propose a new framework, based on explicit micro foundations, within which macro policy can be studied. The framework is analytically tractable and easily quantifiable. We calibrate the model to standard observations and use it to measure the cost of inflation. We find that going from 10 percent to 0 percent inflation is worth between 3 and 5 percent of consumption—much higher than previous estimates.

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A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis

We survey the literature on search-theoretic models of the labor market. We show how this approach addresses many issues, including the following: Why do workers sometimes choose to remain unemployed? What determines the lengths of employment and unemployment spells? How can there simultaneously exist unemployed workers and unfilled vacancies? What determines aggregate unemployment and vacancies? How can homogeneous workers earn different wages? What are the tradeoffs firms face from different wages? How do wages and turnover interact? What determines efficient turnover? We discuss various modeling choices concerning wage determination and the meeting process, including recent models of directed search.

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Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market: A Survey

Search-theoretic models of monetary exchange are based on explicit descriptions of the frictions that make money essential. However, tractable versions of these models typically need strong assumptions that make them ill-suited for studying monetary policy. We propose a framework based on explicit micro foundations within which macro policy can be analyzed. The model is both analytically tractable and amenable to quantitative analysis. We demonstrate this by using it to estimate the welfare cost of inflation. We find much higher costs than the previous literature: our model predicts that going from 10% to 0% inflation can be worth between 3% and 5% of consumption.

The essential function of money is its role as a medium of exchange. The authors formalize this idea using a search-theoretic equilibrium model of the exchange process that captures the "double coincidence of wants problem" with pure barter. One advantage of the framework described here is that it is very tractable. The authors also show that the model can be used to addre ss some substantive issues in monetary economics, including the potenti al welfare-enhancing role of money, the interaction between specializat ion and monetary exchange, and the possibility of equilibria with multip le fiat currencies. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.

Randall Wright

Papers

On Money as a Medium of Exchange

A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis

Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market: A Survey

A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis

A search-theoretic approach to monetary economics