University of Oxford · Nuffield College
Mo Wazzi
PhD student in Economics
Hi! I am a third-year PhD student in Economics at the University of Oxford and a member of Nuffield College. My research interests are in macroeconomics, fiscal policy, and monetary policy. I previously worked as a senior economist at the Bank of England.
You can find my CV here and you can contact me at mohamad.wazzi@economics.ox.ac.uk.
Publications
Unconventional Monetary Policy: Lessons from 2020–2024
Initially prepared for the Federal Reserve’s 2025 framework review.
Abstract
The 2020–2024 period placed unconventional monetary policy tools at the centre of policy. Forward guidance and large-scale asset purchases were deployed forcefully and were then confronted by a rapid recovery and a sharp inflation surge. This paper synthesises the literature through that episode, focusing on the Federal Reserve. We revisit the background literature on forward guidance and asset purchases, focusing on issues that became central after 2020: state dependence, transmission under stress, and the design challenges that arise when conditions change unexpectedly. The episode yielded new transmission evidence—especially on asset purchases—but its main lessons concern policy design. The Fed’s 2020 policy package embedded too little flexibility once the outlook shifted, though likely with modest effects on inflation itself. More generally, unconventional policy faces a commitment–flexibility trade-off, suggesting that guidance conditions and purchase programmes should be stress tested across alternative states of the world before deployment.
Work in progress
Endogenous Growth in Multi-Sector Economies
Abstract
This paper studies how sectoral heterogeneity shapes the medium-run effects of aggregate demand shocks when productivity growth is endogenous. I develop a multi-sector model in which weak demand reduces sectoral R&D, lowers future productivity growth, and generates endogenous persistence. Aggregate persistence is stronger when demand is concentrated in sectors whose future productivity growth is more sensitive to current economic activity, and it is amplified by production linkages. The framework implies that optimal stabilisation policy should depend on sectors’ importance for future productive capacity, not only on nominal rigidities and network position. Firm- and sector-level empirical evidence provides suggestive support for these mechanisms in U.S. data.