Xavier Mateos-Planas

Xavier’s primary research interest is in quantitative macroeconomics – the combination of theory and data for measurement and policy analysis. His agenda reaches across various themes, including the determination of fiscal policies, financial frictions and consumer credit regulation, unemployment and inequality, technology and development, and fertility and economic growth.

His recent work on political economy introduces dynamic voting and a rich demographic structure in quantitative macroeconomic models, a necessary step for the positive analysis of fiscal policies  when there is population change. This permits the quantitative study of policy decisions in situations where the diverse political interests of different age groups interact. This model has been used to examine changes in US tax policies and unfunded social security.

Xavier’s recent work has also focused on consumer credit in order to study personal bankruptcies and the impact of banking regulation. This research considers contracts that have the key realistic features of actual credit arrangements for unsecured household credit. It develops models for the determination of credit terms – credit limits and interest rates – in continuing credit relationships across the different types of households in the economy. This research can and does address policy questions of current practical significance such as the effect of tightening the ability of lenders to re-price risk on revolving loans.

Selected publications

• Demographics and the Politics of Capital Taxation in a Life-cycle Economy. The American Economic Review, 100:1, 337-363, 2010.
• A Quantitative Theory of Social Security Without Commitment Journal of Public Economics, 62, 652-671, 2008.
• Skill bias and unemployment frictions in the US labor market 1970-1990 (with X. Cuadras-Morato) International Economic Review, 47, 129-160, 2006
• Welfare Implications of Bankruptcy with Endogenous Credit Limits (with G. Seccia) Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 30,  2081 –2115, 2006
• Technology Adoption with Finite Horizons. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 28, 2129-2154, 2004
• Creative Destruction and Policy in a Capital Model of Endogenous Growth, Topics in Macroeconomics, 4, article 9, 2004
• Longer Lives, Fertility, and Accumulation. Economics Letters, 80, 2, 175-180, 2003
• The European Demographic Transition: a Neoclassical Dynastic  Approach, Review of Economic Dynamics, 5, 646-680, 2002
• Schooling and Distortions in a Vintage Capital Model. Review of Economic Dynamics, 4, 127-158, 2001