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 forthcoming: Heterogeneous Beliefs, Asset Prices, and Business Cycles
“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.
Forthcoming in the Journal of Financial Economics
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.