Intertemporal Substitution, Money, and Aggregate Labor Supply

This study investigates the macro-econometric credibility of the Intertemporal Substitution Hypothesis. It extends the usual formulation by considering money within the representative consumer's life cycle decision. We also provide measures of the real wage rate and asset returns based upon interpretation of the constraint as consumption-saving behavior. Estimation with quarterly U.S. data generates plausible and significant estimates of the structural parameters. The findings indicate elastic labor supply response to the wage rate but mixed results with respect to nominal returns. The estimates are reasonably robust to alternative measures of consumption, money, leisure, and rates of return