This dissertation intends to study the transmission mechanisms that link the behavior of agents and firms with asymmetries present in business cycles. In order to achieve this goal, three DSGE models were built. In the first chapter, the assumption of a quadratic-symmetric cost adjustment of investment has been removed, and the canonical RBC model was reformulated supposing that dis-investing is costlier than investing one unit of physical capital. In the second chapter, the most important contribution of this dissertation is presented: the construction of a general utility function which nests loss aversion, risk aversion and habits formation by means of a smooth transition function. The reason for doing so is the fact that individuals are loss-averse in recessions and they are risk-averse in booms. In the third chapter, asymmetries in real business cycles are analyzed along with asymmetric adjustment of prices and wages in a Neo-Keynesian framework pursuing a theoretical explanation for the well-documented asymmetries found in the Phillips Curve.
