Working Papers 

• The Spatial and Distributive Implications of Working-from-home: a General Equilibrium Model   

Abstract:   I study the impact of the recent rise in remote work on households' consumption, wealth and housing decisions, examining both short-run and long-run effects. Using detailed UK property-level housing data and a heterogeneous agent model with endogenous housing tenure and city geography, I show that remote work shifts housing demand by increasing the taste for space and reducing commuting costs. It affects where people live in the city and their housing wealth accumulation. The effects vary by access to remote work, income, and wealth.  The rise in work-from-home can be compared to a city-wide gentrification shock as wealthy telecommuters opt for larger suburban homes, displacing marginal owners who turn to renting. In the long-run, work-from-home leads to the rise of a tele-premium and consumption inequality increases. 

• Durable Consumption during the Great Recession: the Role of Ex-ante Heterogeneity

Abstract:  This paper studies the impact of risk heterogeneity on durable consumption over the business cycle. I examine household risk heterogeneity through the lens of labour contract type, and document that during the Great Recession, fixed-term contract workers reduced their car purchases significantly more than their permanent counterparts. Using an incomplete market model of durable and non-durable consumption with a dual labour market, I show that households that experienced an increase in downside income risk (such as permanent contract holders) adopted a "wait-and-see" strategy for their durable purchases, while households that experienced a decline in upside income risk (such as fixed-term contract holders) adopted a "wait-to-downgrade" approach. In addition, a car purchase subsidy has limited ability to stimulate durable consumption of households facing a decline in their upside income risk and is, de facto, partly transformed into a downgrading subsidy.

Work In Progress 

• Fiscal Policy with Heterogeneity in Durable Consumption with Albert Hidalgo and Ralph Luetticke

Abstract: The recent HANK literature reassesses fiscal and monetary policy with heterogeneity in MPCs. This is typically done in a model with only non-durable consumption, and the evidence on MPCs is interpreted through this lens. However, most of the heterogeneity in MPCs stems from differences in the choice of durable consumption. This paper builds a HANK model with durable and non-durable consumption that is consistent with the novel evidence of heterogeneity in the marginal propensity to consume durables and, importantly, heterogeneity in inter-temporal substitution in durables. We use the model to study the effects and transmission of fiscal policy, investigating if durables increase the state dependence of fiscal policy (i.e. is fiscal policy less effective in recessions because households delay purchases of durables?). Additionally, we look at whether the importance of durables increases the need for fiscal and monetary policy coordination.

• Winners and Losers from Monetary Policy: Evidence from the UK Rental Market with Thomas Lazarowicz (preliminary)

Abstract: This paper estimates the heterogenous effects of monetary policy across a novel dimension, housing tenure. Using microdata from one of the UK’s largest property rental and sales websites, we show that a contractionary shock to the policy rate leads to 1) an increase in rental prices and simultaneously 2) a fall in house prices. The granular microdata also allows us to demonstrate that a contractionary shock leads to a decrease in the listing rate of rental properties, suggesting that this heterogenous response across rents and house prices is not solely driven by household tenure decisions, but also by a rental supply channel.