Essays on Finance and Economic Policy

Abstract

This dissertation presents three empirical studies on how financial frictions shape the transmission and effects of economic policy. The dissertation investigates three settings: financial regulation, corporate tax policy, and monetary policy. The first study reveals how a particular type of banking regulation leads to distorted lending behavior when banks are subject to informational and agency frictions. The second study shows how financial frictions lower the responsiveness of corporate investment to a large-scale investment tax credit. The third study provides insights into when the transmission of unconventional monetary policy (‘quantitative easing’) through the banking system fails.