University of Chicago Department of Economics

Prof. Townsend is the Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor at the Department of Economics at University of Chicago. His contributions in theory include the revelation principle, costly state verification, optimal multiperiod contracts, decentralization with private information, money with spatially separated agents, financial structure and growth, and forecasting the forecasts of others. His contributions in econometrics include the study of risk and insurance in developing countries. His work on village India was awarded the Frisch Medal in 1998.

• "Growth and Inequality: Model Evaluation Based on an Estimation-Calibration Strategy," with Hyeok Jeong, forthcoming in Macroeconomic

• "Using Repayment Data to Test Across Models of Joint Liability Lending," with Christian Ahlin, forthcoming 2007 in Economic Journal [PDF]

• "Introduction to Macroeconomic Dynamics Special Issue on Inequality," forthcoming 2007

• "Firms as Clubs in Walrasian Markets with Private Information," with Edward Simpson Prescott, Journal of Political Economy August 2006 (vol. 114, no. 4)

• "Financial Markets and Poverty: An Algorithm for Policy-based Research and Research-based Policy," Chapter 1 in proceedings of 2004 Inter-American Development Bank conference, title forthcoming

• "Distinguishing Limited Liability from Moral Hazard in a Model of Entrepreneurship," with Anna L. Paulson and Alex Karaivanov, Journal of Political Economy (2006) Vol. 114. No. 1, pp. 100 -144

• "Credit, Intermediation and Poverty Reduction," in Understanding Poverty, Abhijit Banerjee, Roland Benabou, Dilip Mookherjee, eds.; forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2006

• "Dynamic Mechanism Design with Hidden Income and Hidden Auctions," with Matthias Doepke, Journal of Economic Theory 126 (2006) pp. 235-285

• "Selection Into and Across Credit Contracts: Theory and Field Research," with Christian Ahlin, Journal of Econometrics 126 (2006)

• "Financial Deepening, Inequality, and Growth: A Model-Based Quantitative Evaluation", with Kenichi Ueda, Review of Economic Studies Volume 73, Issue 1, pp. 251-293, January 2006

• "Private Information and Intertemporal Job Assignments," with Edward Simpson Prescott, forthcoming in the Review of Economic Studies (2006)