Program

Macro Finance Research Program

Probing how financial market activity affects the broader economy
by Lars Peter Hansen

The Macro Finance Research Program (MFR) expands our understanding of how financial markets affect the economy as a whole and, conversely, how the macroeconomy influences financial markets. It does so by bringing together a community of elite scholars with common ambitions to tackle these important challenges. The program operates under the auspices of the Becker Friedman Institute with generous funding support from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

For general program inquiries, please contact Diana Petrova, MFR Program Executive Director, at dpetrova@uchicago.edu.
Through sponsored research projects, conferences, and interactions with visiting scholars, this program focuses on these fundamental questions:

  • How do we construct models and measurements that will better support the prudent oversight of system-wide challenges to the financial system?
  • What are the best ways to incorporate broad notions of uncertainty into the analysis of economic policies for both the private and public sectors?
  • What are some meaningful approaches to addressing climate change in the presence of the associated deep uncertainties?
  • How does the credit cycle influence the business cycle, and how does the business cycle affect the credit cycle?
  • How does macroeconomic policy uncertainty impact financial markets?
  • What are the macroeconomic and financial market implications of intermediation and its impediments?

MFR Program Advisory Committee

The MFR Program Advisory Committee oversees the research agenda of the program. Members of the committee are prominent experts in macroeconomics and finance with particular interests in exploring linkages between these fields:

  • Lars Peter Hansen, Professor, University of Chicago Departments of Economics, Statistics and the Booth School of Business, Committee Chair
  • Fernando Alvarez, Professor, University of Chicago Department of Economics
  • John Cochrane, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, and BFI Distinguished Research Fellow
  • Douglas Diamond, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Zhiguo He, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • John Heaton, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Anil Kashyap, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Ralph Koijen, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Yueran Ma, Professor of Finance, University of Booth School of Business
  • Stefan Nagel, Professor of Finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Carolin Pflueger, Assistant Professor, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
  • Thomas Sargent, Professor, New York University Department of Economics and BFI Distinguished Research Fellow
  • Amir Sufi, Professor, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
  • Harald Uhlig, Professor, University of Chicago Department of Economics

MFR Program Staff

 

Person 1

David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor, UChicago; Director, BFI’s Macro Finance Research Program
Person 2

Executive Director, Macro Finance Research Program
Person 3

Events and Operations Associate, Macro Finance Research Program
Person 4

Administrative Specialist, Macro Finance Research Program
Person 5

Senior Program Associate, Macro Finance Research Program
Person 6

Predoctoral Research Professional, Faculty Supervisor: Lars Peter Hansen

Person 8

Research Consultant, Macro Finance Research Program

Person 9

Predoctoral Research Professional, Faculty Supervisor: Lars Peter Hansen

Person 10

Predoctoral Research Professional, Faculty Supervisor: Lars Peter Hansen
 

 


MFR Program Conferences and Events

Upcoming Events:

  • JPE Macro Workshop on Economic Dynamics, Uncertainty and Computation Workshop – November 13 and December 3, 2024 (co-sponsored by MFR)

Past Events:


Quant Macro Finance

Quant Macro Finance (QuantMFR) is an online research resource repository. The website includes both written pedagogical discussions and software support for relevant computations. It currently features several chapters of the book entitled, “Risk, Uncertainty and Value” by Lars Peter Hansen, Thomas J. Sargent and Jaroslav Borovička, along with associated notebooks that provide access to computational support. This book develops concepts and tools to support uncertainty characterizations and quantifications as they apply to potentially nonlinear stochastic equilibrium models. The QuantMFR website also includes complementary materials on model comparisons for classes on macro-finance models along with other published pedagogical discussions of tools and methods of analysis for stochastic equilibrium models. In addition, the QuantMFR website offers a variety of user-friendly code for interested scholars who wish to apply the methods.

Associated Scholars

UChicago Scholar

Fernando Alvarez

Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics
Distinguished Research Fellow

John H. Cochrane

Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution at Stanford University
UChicago Scholar

Douglas W. Diamond

Merton H. Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance, Booth School of Business

Wenxin Du

Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School
UChicago Scholar

Lars Peter Hansen

The David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and Statistics, the Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics and the Booth School of Business; Director of BFI's Macro Finance Research Program
UChicago Scholar

Zhiguo He

Fuji Bank and Heller Professor of Finance, Booth School of Business
UChicago Scholar

John C. Heaton

Joseph L. Gidwitz Professor of Finance, Booth School of Business
UChicago Scholar

Anil Kashyap

Stevens Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Finance, Booth School of Business

Timothy J. Kehoe

Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Economics, University of Minnesota
Visiting Scholar

Patrick Kehoe

Stanford University

Associated Research

BFI Working Paper·Jun 22, 2023

Carbon Prices and Forest Preservation Over Space and Time in the Brazilian Amazon

Juliano J. Assunção, Lars Peter Hansen, Todd Munson, and José A. Scheinkman
Topics: Energy & Environment, Financial Markets
BFI Working Paper·Jun 21, 2023

Risk, Ambiguity, and Misspecification: Decision Theory, Robust Control, and Statistics

Lars Peter Hansen and Thomas J. Sargent
Topics: Uncategorized
BFI Working Paper·May 23, 2022

Making Decisions under Model Misspecification

Simone Cerreia-Vioglioa, Lars Peter Hansen, Fabio Maccheronia, and Massimo Marinacci
Topics: Uncategorized

Associated Insights

Research Briefs·Jul 6, 2023

Carbon Prices and Forest preservation Over Space and Time in the Brazilian Amazon

Juliano J. Assunção, Lars Peter Hansen, Todd Munson, and José A. Scheinkman
With modest transfers per ton of net CO2, Brazil would find it optimal to choose policies that produce substantial capture of greenhouse gasses in the next 30 years, suggesting that the management of tropical forests could play an important role...
Topics: Energy & Environment, Financial Markets

Associated News

BFI News·Dec 13, 2023

Macro Finance Research Program (MFR) 2024 Summer Session for Young Scholars

Topics: Financial Markets, Monetary Policy, Technology & Innovation
Media Mention·Jun 22, 2023

Paying Up to Save the Amazon May Be Cheaper than the Alternative

Chicago Booth Review; Lars Peter Hansen
Topics: Energy & Environment, Financial Markets
BFI News·Mar 17, 2022

Macro Finance Research Program (MFR) 2022 Summer Session for Young Scholars

Topics: Financial Markets, Monetary Policy, Technology & Innovation