Essays on Macroeconomics, Finance and Environment

This thesis comprises three papers that bridge macroeconomics, finance, and the physical foundations of production in relation to environment. The first paper, Supply Chain Uncertainty: Pricing, Growth, and Blockchains, identifies supply chain disruptions as priced macroeconomic risks in the cross-section of US equities. It develops a structural endogenous growth model in which logistic and financial frictions jointly affect innovation, investment, and long-run growth. Counterfactual analysis shows that decentralized blockchain-based coordination of supply networks can mitigate these frictions, raising welfare and stabilizing growth. The second paper, The First Law of Macroeconomics: Implications of Energy Balance Equations, reinterprets the production side of the economy through the lens of Energy Conservation Law. It introduces the concept of Energy Differential - net useful energy after extraction and conversion losses - as a measurable state variable driving output, productivity, and asset prices. Empirical analysis shows that energy availability explains over 94% of Total Factor Productivity variation and shapes long-run growth, long-run productivity and business-cycle dynamics – all of which affects asset prices. This chapter extends macroeconomics of production towards a physics-coherent unified theory of growth and sustainability. The third paper, Biodiversity and Financial Crises: Global Evidence, examines the bidirectional link between ecological resilience and financial stability. Using global panel data from 1970–2018, it finds that banking and triple crises significantly deplete biodiversity, while biodiversity decline, in turn, raises systemic financial risk. The study highlights the complementarity between macroprudential and environmental policies in achieving sustainable global stability. Together, these three chapters advance novel empirical facts and theoretical results on production processes and their relationship to broader environment.