Welcome to Silvana Tenreyro's Web page     



Positions and Affiliations

Professor, Department of Economics, London School of Economics

External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England

Fellow of the British Academy

Fellow of the Econometric Society

Former President of the European Economic Association

Programme Leader, CfM

Research Fellow, CEPR

 

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

 

Education

Ph.D., Harvard University, 2002. (Advisors: A. Alesina, R. Barro - chair - and K. Rogoff.) 

M.A., Harvard University, 1999.

B.A., Universidad Nacional de Tucuman, Argentina, 1997.

 

Contact: s.tenreyro[at]LSE.ac.uk

If you have questions about "The Log of Gravity", please click here

 

 

Published and Forthcoming Academic Papers 

 

 

Other Publications and Policy Speeches

Working Papers
 

  • Helicopter Money: What is it and what does it do?
    Joint with Ricardo Reis

     
    Abstract:
    We review the different meanings of helicopter money both in the literature and in the public debate around it, and clarify the conditions under which helicopter money can have an impact on real activity. To do so, we set out a simple model that encapsulates a number of potential channels of policy transmission. The model provides a taxonomy of possibilities for helicopter money to affect the economy, as well as a benchmark set of conditions under which it is neutral. We use the model to analyse and discuss the impact that helicopter drops might have in response to a number of economic shocks, including a financial crisis, a fiscal crisis, and a pandemic.


  • The Rise in Agribusinesses and its Distributional Consequences
    Joint with Swati Dhingra 

     
    Abstract: Crops are often modelled as homogenous products that are exchanged in perfectly competitive markets. While this may be true of world commodity markets, smallholder farmers face high trade barriers in selling their crops at home and abroad. Smallholder farmers can overcome these barriers by selling to agribusinesses with better intermediation technologies. This has provided a rationale for policies encouraging agribusinesses. However, the rise of agribusinesses also skews the distribution of buyers of farm produce towards larger firms with greater buyer power. This paper documents the reliance of farmers on intermediaries and shows that farmers selling to agribusinesses differ systematically from others. We incorporate these stylised facts into a flexible theoretical framework to study the aggregate and distributional consequences of the rise of agribusinesses. Taking the theory to data, we quantify behind-the-border barriers to trade embedded in a national policy to encourage agribusiness participation. We combine this with microdata on household-crop incomes and find that the policy led to a reduction in incomes of small farmers. Losses were concentrated among farmers who sold to agribusinesses and in villages with a comparative advantage in policy-affected crops. On average, their incomes fell by 6 per cent with no offsetting gains in non-farm channels of income. Profit margins of agribusinesses specialised in policy-affected crops rose, in line with the theoretical channel. The findings contribute to the academic and policy debate on the impact of integration and market power on the size and distribution of the welfare gains from trade.


  • The Balance of Power: monopsony, unions, and wages in the United Kingdom
    Joint with Will Abel and Greg Thwaites 

     
    Abstract: We document the evolution of labour market concentration in the UK private sector labour market from 1998-2018, how labour unions have counterbalanced this power, and the net effect on wages. Using linked employee- rm micro-data, we find that: (1) Measures of labour market concentration have not exhibited a time trend over the time period examined. (2) There is substantial cross-sectional variation in concentration at the industry level. (3) Higher levels of labour market concentration are associated with lower pay amongst workers not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. (4) For workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the association between labour market concentration and pay disappears. (5) The effects of concentration and union coverage are generally larger for lower-paid workers, and workers in tradable industries. (6) Collective bargaining agreements weaken the impact of workers' outside options in other labour markets, which nonetheless remain strong.

 

Notes

Selected Comments and Discussions

  • Demographic Transitions Across Time and Space, by Matthew Delventhal, Jesus Fernandez Villaverde and Nezih Guner, CEPR 2020.

  • The Global Impact of Brexit Uncertainty, by Tarek Hassan, Stephan Hollander, Laurence van Lent and Ahmed Tahoun, NBER SI 2020.

  • Inflation Expectations as a Policy Tool? by Olivier Coibion, Yuryi Gorodnichenko, Mathieu Pedemonte and Saten Kumar, 2019.

  • Some International Evidence for Keynesian Economics Without the Phillips Curve, by Roger Farmer and Giovanni Nicolo, 2019.

  • DSGE Models: Theory and Empirics, Nobel Symposium presentations by Martin Eichenbaum and Harald Uhlig, 2018.

  • The Micro Origins of International Business Cycle Co-movement, by Julian Di Giovanni and Andrei Levchenko. NBER SI 2016.

  • Does Finance Benefit Society? by Luigi Zingales. Banque de France, Paris 2015

  • Insider Outsider Labour Markets, Hysteresis and Monetary Policy, by Jordi Gali. Oxford 2015.

  • Specialization Patterns in International Trade, by Walter Steingress. London 2015.

  • Small and Large Price Changes and the Propagation of Shocks, by Fernando Alvarez, Francesco Lippi, and Herbe Le Bihan. Fondation Banque de France, Paris 2014.

  • Segmented Housing Markets, by Monika Piazzesi, Martin Schneider, and Johannes Stroebel. LBS, London 2013.

  • Macroeconomic Performance during Commodity Prices Booms, by Luis Cespedes and Andres Velasco, IMF Res conference, Istanbul 2012.

  • Economic Integration and Structural Change, by Jean Imbs and Romain Wacziarg, CEPR, Paris 2012.

  • Non-uniform Wage Staggering: European Evidence and Monetary Policy Implications, by Julliard, Le Bihan, and Millard, 2011.

  • Low Interest Rates and Housing Booms: the Role of Capital Inflows, Monetary Policy and Financial Innovation, by Filipa Sa, Pascal Towbin and Tomasz Wieladek. LBS, London 2011.

  • International Differences in Fiscal Policy, by Agustin Benetrix and Philip Lane. NBER TAPES conference, 2010.

  • From Great Depression to Great Credit Crisis: Similarities, Differences and Lessons, by Miguel Alumnia, Agustin Benetrix, Barry Eichengreen, Patrick O'Rourke and Gisella Rua, 2010. Forthcoming in Economic Policy.

  • Subprime-Related Losses and Board In-Competence: Private vs. Public Banks in Germany, by Harald Hau and Marcel Thum, 2009. Forthcoming in Economic Policy.

  • The Estimated Effects of the Euro on Trade, (slides) by Jeff Frankel (2008). Forthcoming in NBER volume, edited by Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi. MIT Press.

  • Productivity and the Dollar, by Giancarlo Corsetti, Luca Dedola, and Sylvain Leduc. ESSIM, Izmir 2007.

  • Do Exports Generate Higher Productivity? Evidence from Slovenia, by Jan DeLoecker. CEPR, Alghero 2004.

  • Relative Prices and Relative Prosperity , by Chang-Tai Hsieh and Peter Klenow. NBER SI, Cambridge, MA 2003.

  • Globalization and Inflation, by Natalie Chen, Jean Imbs, and Andrew Scott. CEPR, Rome 2003.

  • Exchange Rate Volatility and the Composition of Trade, by Christian Broda and John Romalis. Federal Reserve Bank, 2003.

  • The Effect of Common Currencies on International Trade: A Meta-Analysis, by Andy Rose. Harvard, Cambridge MA 2002.

  • Latin American Insecurity, by Dany Rodrik, with Mariano Tomassi. New York 2000.

 

Referee

American Economic Journal, American Economic Review, Canadian Journal of Economics, Econometrica, Economica, Economic Journal, Economics of Transition, Empirical Economics, European Economic Review, European Journal of Political Economy, Fiscal Studies, International Economic Review, IMF Staff Papers, Journal of Applied Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of the European Economic Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal of International Money and Finance, Journal of International Trade and Development, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Political Economy, National Science Foundation, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic Studies, Review of International Economics.