Saki Bigio
Associate Professor of Economics · UCLA
I study how financial-market liquidity, banks, and payment systems shape the macroeconomy—and how monetary and financial policies can improve their functioning.
My research combines economic theory and quantitative models to understand credit provision, monetary policy transmission, and financial crises.
Working Papers · Publications · CV · Contact
News ↓
New paper: A Theory of Payment-Chain Crises
JFE: Heterogeneous Beliefs, Asset Prices, and Business Cycles
EER forthcoming: Transfers vs. Credit Policy
“An economist by training thinks of himself as
the guardian of rationality,
the ascriber of rationality to others,
and the prescriber of rationality to the social world.It is this role that I will play”
— Kenneth Arrow
The Limits of Organization, p. 16
News
New paper: A Theory of Payment-Chain Crises
With Esteban Mendez and Diana van Patten · September 2026
How payment delays propagate through production networks, reduce output, and create a role for policy.
Journal of Financial Economics · November 2026
Heterogeneous Beliefs, Asset Prices, and Business Cycles
With Dejanir Silva and Eduardo Zilberman
How shifts in investor beliefs connect asset prices, hiring, and business-cycle fluctuations.
Forthcoming in the European Economic Review
Transfers vs. Credit Policy
With Mengbo Zhang and Eduardo Zilberman
When are transfers or credit policy more effective in responding to an economic shock?