Roc Armenter

Roc Armenter

Executive Vice President and Economist, FRB Philadelphia

Visiting Scholar, Wharton School - Finance

Areas of Expertise

Monetary Policy Macroeconomics Finance Machine Learning
rocarm@wharton.upenn.edu

I have more than two decades of experience in economic research and monetary policy at the Federal Reserve. I am most proud of my contributions to monetary policy over the years, as senior policy advisor and FOMC economist, and of my role in the design of balance sheet policies and implementation framework.

My research has been published in a variety of top journals in economics, with interests ranging from fiscal and monetary policy to information theory and machine learning.

I have a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University and an M.Sc. and a B.A. in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Publications

Geometric Methods for Finite Rational Inattention

with Michele Müller-Itten and Zach Stangebye

Quantitative Economics, 15(1), pp. 115-144, 2024

→ Codes (solve finite RI models, quickly!)

A Model of the Federal Funds Market: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

with Gara Afonso and Ben Lester

Review of Economic Dynamics, 33, pp. 133-204, 2019

→ Working paper version → Liberty Street Blog

The Perils of Nominal Targets

Review of Economic Studies, 85(1), pp. 50-86, 2018

→ Older version (WP 14-2/R)

Taxes and Capital Structure: Understanding Firms' Savings

with Viktoria Hnatkovska

Journal of Monetary Economics, 87, pp. 13-33, 2017

→ 2013 version → WP 12-1 → Online Appendix

Time Consistent Fiscal Policy in a Debt Crisis

with Ben Lester

Review of Economic Dynamics, 23, pp. 212-235, 2017

→ Older version (WP 15-35)

A Balls-and-Bins Model of Trade: A Reply

with Miklós Koren

American Economic Review, 106(3), pp. 852-854, 2016

Sovereign Default: The Role of Expectations

B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 16(2), pp. 301-334, 2016

→ Older version (WP 10-20)

Economies of Scale and the Size of Exporters

Published

with Miklós Koren

Journal of the European Economic Association, 13(3), pp. 482-511, 2015

→ Online Appendix

A Balls-and-Bins Model of Trade

Published

with Miklós Koren

American Economic Review, 104(7), pp. 2127-2151, 2014

→ Online appendix → Codes and data links

Fraud Deterrence in Dynamic Mirrleesian Economies

Published

with Thomas M. Mertens

Journal of Monetary Economics, 60(2), pp. 139-151, 2013

Intertemporal Distortions in the Second Best

Published

with Stefania Albanesi

Review of Economic Studies, 79(4), pp. 1271-1307, 2012

Accounting for Development through Investment Prices

Published

with Amartya Lahiri

Journal of Monetary Economics, 59(6), pp. 550-564, 2012

Credible Redistribution Policy and Skilled Migration

Published

with Francesc Ortega

European Economic Review, 55(2), pp. 228-245, 2011

Credible Redistributive Policies and Migration Across U.S. States

Published

with Francesc Ortega

Review of Economic Dynamics, 13, pp. 403-423, 2010

Of Nutters and Doves

Published

with Martin Bodenstein

B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 9(1), art. 35, 2009

A Note on Incomplete Factor Taxation

Journal of Public Economics, 92, pp. 2275-2281, 2008

A General Theory (and Some Evidence) of Expectation Traps in Monetary Policy

Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, 40, pp. 867-896, 2008

Can the U.S. Monetary Policy Fall (Again) in an Expectation Trap?

Published

with Martin Bodenstein

Macroeconomic Dynamics, 12, pp. 664-693, 2008

Time-Consistent Fiscal Policy and Heterogeneous Agents

Review of Economic Dynamics, 10, pp. 31-54, 2007

Equilibrium Selection Through Incomplete Information in Coordination Games: An Experimental Study

Published

with Antonio Cabrales and Rosemarie Nagel

Experimental Economics, 10, pp. 221-234, 2007

Other Publications

"A Bit of a Miracle No More: The Decline of the Labor Share"

FRB Philadelphia Business Review, Third Quarter 2015

"Does the U.S. Trade More Widely Than It Appears?"

FRB Philadelphia Business Review, First Quarter 2014

"The Rise of Corporate Savings"

FRB Philadelphia Business Review, Third Quarter 2012

"Output Gaps: Uses and Limitations"

FRB Philadelphia Business Review, First Quarter 2011

Working Papers

Rational Inattention via Ignorance Equivalence

Working Paper

with Michele Müller-Itten and Zach Stangebye

Bridges

Very Preliminary

with Miklós Koren and David Krisztián Nagy

Everything all the time? Entry and exit in U.S. Import Varieties

Working Paper

with Miklós Koren

→ Slides

Understanding Capital Taxation in Ramsey Models

with Stefania Albanesi

Short Notes

A Tractable Model of the Demand for Reserves Under Nonlinear Remuneration Schemes

FRB Philadelphia Working Paper 16-35, December 2016

On the Use of Market-Based Probabilities for Policy Decisions

FRB Philadelphia Working Paper 15-44, 2015

On the Timing of Monetary Policy Reform

FRB Philadelphia Working Paper 13-4, 2013