School of Economics Hosts First Drexel-PFED Conference

BY LISA LITZINGER-DRAYTON

October 10, 2017

On September 29, Drexel’s School of Economics hosted the Drexel-PFED Conference on Credit Markets and the Macroeconomy. It was the first installment of an annual conference that will be sponsored jointly by Drexel’s School of Economics and The Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Upwards of 50 researchers, central bankers and policymakers from institutions such as the Federal Reserve, the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and Villanova University were in attendance. Topics discussed included:

• The painful legacy of credit booms • Should monetary policy lean against the wind and if so, how? • The impact of labor obligations for firms on credit markets • Bank branching and market competition in banking • Regulating household leverage • Capital misallocation and secular stagnation • Learning how firms grow

“Economists from top research institutions shared ongoing research projects and engaged in a lively discussion with other presenters and attendees,” said Vibhas Madan, director of the School of Economics. “The research papers at the conference focused on a number of topics in credit markets including key regulatory issues related to household leverage, banking and monetary policy.”

The conference was planned by Maria Olivero, associate professor at the School of Economics, and Satyajit Chatterjee, Pablo D’Erasmo and Burcu Eyigungor from the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Conference Speakers:

“Accounting for Debt Service: The Painful Legacy of Credit Booms” Mathias Drehmann (BIS), Mikael Juselius (Bank of Finland) and Anton Korinek (John Hopkins University)

“The Tradeoffs in Leaning Against the Wind” Francois Gourio (FRB Chicago), Anil K. Kashyap (University of Chicago) and Jae Sim (FR Board)

“The Elephant in the Room: The Impact of Labor Obligations on Credit Markets” Jack Favilukis (University British Columbia), Xiaoji Lin (Ohio State University) and Xiaofei Zhao (UT Dallas School of Management)

“Capital Misallocation and Secular Stagnation” Andrea Caggese (Pompeu-CREI) and Ander Perez-Orive (FR Board)

“The Geographic Flow of Bank Funding: Branch Networks and Local-Market Competition” Victor Aguirregabiria (University of Toronto), Robert Clark (Queens Univ) and Hui Wang (Peking University)

“Regulating Household Leverage” Anthony A. DeFusco (Northwestern-Kellogg), Stephanie Johnson (Northwestern) and John Mondragon (Northwestern-Kellogg)

“How Firms Grow” Doireann Fitzgerald (FR Minneapolis), Stefanie Haller (University College Dublin) and Yaniv Yedid-Levi (University of British Columbia)

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