Hollow Buffers in U.S. Banking: The Hidden Distribution of Deposit Taxation

This paper shows reserve requirements remain a tax at the margin. Aggregate reserves look ample, yet deposit-weighted distributions reveal a hollow buffer. Many deposits still face binding constraints despite system-wide abundance.

September 2025 · Nicholas R. Pusateri

Did Zero Reserve Requirements Boost Lending? Evidence from the 2020 Fed Reform

The 2020 Federal Reserve elimination of reserve requirements led banks to significantly reallocate their balance sheets toward both securities and loans, though the marginal effect on credit supply was [large/limited] relative to securities investment.

August 2025 · Nicholas R. Pusateri

Unveiling u*: A State-level Approach

This paper provide a nuanced understanding of the structural underpinnings of unemployment and offers policymakers a more accurate framework for analyzing unemployment dynamics.

February 2025 · Nicholas Pusateri

Policy and the Natural Rate: Evidence from State-level Full Employment Rates

Utilizing state-level data, this paper investigates the causal drivers of differences in the natural rate of unemployment across the US.

January 2025 · Nicholas Pusateri

Human Capital Heterogeneity of the Unemployed and Jobless Recoveries

This paper demonstrate that the extent to which unemployed human capital is heterogeneous and specific, rather than homogeneous and general, plays a key role in the labor market, accounting for a significant share of joblessness in the pre-COVID era.

February 2023 · Nicholas Pusateri

Turmoil of the Times: Measuring the Impact of the Nixon Shock on R&D

On August 15, 1971, President Nixon ended the convertibility of dollars into gold for foreign holders of US currency. This event—known as the “Nixon Shock”—increased the cost of irreversible investment projects and, in turn, decreased private R&D.

April 2022 · Nicholas Pusateri

A Holistic Approach to Merger Models with an Emphasis on Heterogeneity

This paper constructs a more holistic model of M&A activity to produce accurate estimates of merger and acquisition determinants and reveal the bias of previous estimation techniques.

March 2018 · Nicholas Pusateri, Caleb S. Fuller