Research
WORKING PAPER
“Does the Financial Accelerator accelerate inequalities?”
[CefES-DEMS WPS (2024)] [New Draft (2026)] [Cite]
This paper investigates the distributional role of the corporate financial accelerator, motivated by empirical evidence suggesting that the response of consumption inequality to monetary shocks is amplified during periods of corporate financial stress. Using a HANK framework, I show that financial frictions act as an ``inequality accelerator” for consumption and wealth through two distinct channels. First, the accelerator mechanism deepens the contraction in investment, leading to a sharper decline in labor demand and wages that disproportionately hurts hand-to-mouth households. monetary contraction raises the real return on liquid savings, cushioning the consumption of wealthy savers relative to the poor. This result is robust to extending the model to include illiquid assets: the rise in rental rates driven by the external finance premium offsets capital valuation losses, preserving the divergence in wealth accumulation.
Presented at: Unimib PhD macro presentations (Milan, 2023), Unibs economics seminar (Brescia, 2023), International EPOC Doctoral Workshop (Venice, 2024), Unicatt Macro Lunch Seminar (Milan, 2024), XXV Conference on International Economics (Alicante, 2024), CEPET Workshop (Udine, 2024), EPOC International Conference (Milan, 2024), Sapienza Macro Workshop (Rome, 2024), 5th Sailing the Macro Workshop (Ortigia, 2025), Unisa Research Seminar (Salerno, 2025)
“Uneven Frictions, Uneven Households: The Inequality Trade-off of Monetary Policy”
(Formerly titled “Effects of different financial frictions on households”)
[Sapienza WPS (2025)] [New Draft (2026)] [Cite]
Does the location of financial frictions significantly change the distributional consequences of monetary policy? Using a HANK model, I compare transmission under firm-side and household-side financial accelerators. I document a state-dependent trade-off: while firm-side frictions amplify wealth inequality by depressing labor income, household-side frictions generate a significantly larger spike in consumption inequality. This divergence is driven by the behavior of the household borrowing spread and its impact on agents near the zero-wealth threshold. Under firm frictions, households use credit to smooth indirect income shocks; under household frictions, rising spreads directly choke off liquidity, trapping a larger share of agents in hand-to-mouth status. These findings highlight that the ``inequality cost” of monetary policy depends critically on the specific origin of credit market stress
Presented at: II Milan PhD Economics Workshop (Milan, 2024), Sapienza Macro Workshop (Rome, 2025)
WORK IN PROGRESS
“Shaping Inflation Inattention through Inequality”
with Giovanni Di Bartolomeo and Carolina Serpieri
Presented at: Unicatt Macro Lunch Seminar (Milan, 2025), ASSET annual meeting* (Rabat, 2025), IV WINTER Workshop (Granada, 2025), Unimib Relunch Seminar, (Milan, 2025)
(*Presented by co-author)
Draft coming soon!