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

Lars Peter Hansen David Rockefeller Distinguished Service Professor, UChicago; Director, BFI’s Macro Finance Research Program	Diana Petrova Executive Director, Macro Finance Research Program	Sandy Quarles Events and Operations Associate, Macro Finance Research Program	Carmen Quinn Administrative Specialist, Macro Finance Research Program
Valentina Solano Senior Program Associate, Macro Finance Research Program	Pengyu Chen Predoctoral Research Professional, Faculty Supervisor: Lars Peter Hansen	Joseph Huang Research Consultant, Macro Finance Research Program	Chun Hei Hung Predoctoral Research Professional, Faculty Supervisor: Lars Peter Hansen

MFR Program Conferences and Events

Upcoming Events:

2024 MFR Summer Session for Young Scholars – August 5-8, 2024 organized by MFR Program Advisory Committee Members (application process is now closed)

Past Events:

MFR/Imperial College London 2024 Conference on Uncertainty, Climate Change, and Policy Challenges – May 2-3, 2024 in London, UK – organized by Lars Peter Hansen, Franklin Allen and Erik Chavez (co-sponsored by MFR and the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis (BHC)
Methods for Solving and Analyzing Dynamic Models in the Face if Uncertainty and Cross-Sectional Heterogeneity Conference – March 7-8, 2024 at the University of Chicago – organized by Fernando Alvarez, Lars Peter Hansen, and Panagiotis Souganidis – co-sponsored with the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI)

22nd Macro-Finance Society Workshop – October 27-28, 2023 at the University of Chicago – organized by Carolin Pflueger and Wenxin Du (co-sponsored by the MFR Program)
2023 Housing, Household Debt, and the Macroeconomy – September 22, 2023 at the Gleacher Center – organized by Amir Sufi
MFR Conference on Monetary Policy and Asset Pricing – September 8, 2023 at the University of Chicago – organized by Carolin Pflueger and Rohan Kekre
Conference on Decision-Making Under Uncertainty in Climate and Macroeconomics – May 24-25, 2023 hosted by Bocconi University – organized by Lars Peter Hansen, Massimo Marinacci and Valentina Bosetti
Assessing the Economic and Environmental Consequences of Climate Change: Incorporating Uncertainty and Quantifying Its Importance – March 31-April 1, 2023 at the University of Chicago – organized by Lars Peter Hansen, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg and Rebecca Willett – co-sponsored with the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI)
Bridging Theory and Empirical Research in Finance – December 9-10, 2022 at the University of Chicago – organized by Zhiguo He, University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Ron Kaniel, University of Rochester, and Lars Peter Hansen, University of Chicago – co-sponsored with the Fama-Miller Center
MFR-NSF Financial Economics of Insurance Workshop – October 20, 2022 at the Gleacher Center organized by Ralph Koijen
Behavioral Implications of Uncertainty in Macroeconomics Capstone Conference – September 22-23, 2022 at the University of Chicago
MFR Summer Session for Young Scholars – August 1-4, 2022 at the University of Chicago organized by MFR Program Advisory Committee Members
Confronting Uncertainty in Climate Change Conference – April 13-15, 2022 at the University of Chicago and co-sponsored with the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI)
Advancing Macro Finance Workshop – October 7-8, 2021 – organized by Yueran Ma, Kilian Huber and Lars Peter Hansen
16th Annual Macro Finance Society Workshop – organized by Lars Peter Hansen, Mikhail Chernov, Wenxin Du, and Niels Gormsen at the University of Chicago – October 23-24, 2020
[Virtual Conference] 2020 MFR Program Summer Session for Young Scholars – organized by MFR Program Advisory Committee Members– July 28-31, 2020
[Virtual Conference] Expectations in Macroeconomic and Financial Models – June 25-26, 2020 organized by Monika Piazzesi, Michael Woodford and Lars Peter Hansen
The Macroeconomy and Finance in China Conference – December 12-13, 2019 organized by Lars Peter Hansen and Zhiguo He and hosted by Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China
2019 Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains Conference – November 22-23, 2019 organized by Eric Budish, Zhiguo He, Jacob Leshno, and Harald Uhlig at the University of Chicago
Macro Finance Society 14th Workshop – November 1-2, 2019 – MFR co-sponsoring at the University of Southern California (USC Marshall)
University of Chicago Policy Forum on the Pension Crisis: State and Local Pension Challenges – November 8, 2019 at the University of Chicago – organized by Lars Peter Hansen and James Heckman and co-sponsored by the Center for the Economics of Human Development (CEHD)
2019 Asset Pricing Conference – October 24-25, 2019 organized by Niels Gormsen, Samuel Hartzmark and Michael Weber at the University of Chicago
2019 Housing, Household Debt, and Macroeconomics Conference – September 20, 2019 at the University of Chicago
Stanford Institute for Theoretical Economics (SITE) – July 1-2, 2019 – MFR Program co-sponsored workshop at Stanford University
University of Chicago Policy Forum: Building on the Chicago Approach to Economics – April 25, 2019 at the University of Chicago
Meeting of the Blue Collar Working Group – April 4, 2019 at the University of Chicago
Robustness in Economics and Econometrics Conference – April 5-6, 2019 at the University of Chicago (co-sponsored by BFI’s Big Data Initiative)
2019 Macro Financial Modeling (MFM) Winter Meeting – February 21-22, 2019 at the NYMEX, 300 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10282, USA
Chicago Booth Asset Pricing Conference – December 6-7, 2018 at The University of Chicago
Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains Conference – November 9-10, 2018 organized by Eric Budish, Zhiguo He, Jacob Leshno, and Harald Uhlig at the University of Chicago
MFR/IADB Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America Conference – September 24-25, 2018 in Washington DC
2018 Monetary and Fiscal History of Latin America – August 24, 2018 in Santiago, Chile
2018 Macro Financial Modeling Summer Session for Young Scholars – June 17-21, 2018 at Cape Cod
Taxation and Fiscal Policy Conference – May 18-19, 2018 at the University of Chicago
2018 Macro Financial Modeling Winter Meeting – January 25-26, 2018 in New York City
The Latin American Fiscal History Conference – December 11-13, 2017 at the University of Chicago
Chicago Initiative in Theory and Empirics (CITE) – August 7-9, 2017 at the University of Chicago
Fiscal and Monetary History of Latin America 2016-17 – various locations
2017 Macro Financial Modeling Summer Session for Young Scholars – June 18-22, 2017 in Bretton Woods, NH
Government Debt: Constraints and Choices – April 21-22, 2017 at the University of Chicago
Macro Financial Modeling Winter 2017 – March 9-10, 2017 in New York City
Macro Finance Society 8th Workshop – November 3-4, 2016 at the University of Chicago

MFR Suite

The MFR Suite provides a collection of Python modules for conducting analysis in macro-finance. In particular, it provides the model solution to the framework developed in Hansen, Khorrami, and Tourre (2018). In addition, it provides two independent modules to compute stationary density and shock elasticities (see Term Structure of Uncertainty in the Macroeconomy and Shock Elasticities and Impulse Responses).

DOWNLOAD MFR SUITE

To report issues or suggest improvements for the MFR Suite team, submit feedback here.

We would like to thank project associate Joseph Huang for developing the MFR Suite and MFR research professional Han Xu for launching its second version in June of 2020. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the Macro Financial Modeling project through the generous financial support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Fidelity Investments and to thank Amy Boonstra, former MFM Executive Director, for her unconditional support. For their feedback, we thank Yu-Ting Chiang (University of Chicago), Jian Li (University of Chicago), Simon Scheidegger (HEC Lausanne), Elisabeth Proehl (University of Amsterdam), and conference participants at the 2nd MMCN, PASC18, University of Zurich, Northwestern University, and participants at the Economic Dynamics Working Group at the University of Chicago. We also would like to thank the Research Computing Center at the University of Chicago (RCC) for their guidance on high performance computing, in particular Peter Carbonetto and Hossein Pourreza. Read more about the MFR Collaboration with the RCC.