Showing 1 - 10 of 33
In this paper, we analyze the strength and nature of bequest motives in the United States using data from the 2000 Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The results of our analysis suggest that bequest motives are very strong in the United States and that they are altruistically motivated. This...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005342297
Consumption is partly a social activity, yet most studies of consumer behavior treat households in isolation. We investigate familial relationships in consumption patterns using a sample of parents and their children from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find a positive and statistically...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005063539
This paper analyzes a unique dataset, which contains results of a large-scale experiment in the credit card market. Two strange phenomena that suggest time inconsistency in consumer behavior are observed: First, consumers prefer an introductory offer which has a lower interest rate with a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005063723
Gorman's class of Engel curve demand models is extended to incomplete demand systems. The Gorman class of aggregable incomplete demand systems admits any transformation of deflated income. A maximum rank of three for the demand equations is a corollary of Slutsky symmetry. Models of incomplete...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005702576
The goal of this paper is to determine the effects of different social security regimes on job search. A less generous pension system induces higher savings across the life cycle and makes agents wealthier and thus more reluctant to accept low wage offers. On the other hand, as the social...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005328864
We study a model with a durable good subject to abrupt, periodic obsolescence, and characterize the optimal purchasing policy. Consumers optimally synchronize new purchases with the arrival of new durable models. Hence, some agents use a "flexible" optimal replacement rule that switches between...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005328887
This paper presents a model developed to explain the life-cycle patterns in both homeownership and portfolio allocation, and the relationship between them, using a model of rational agents. Two key innovations are incorporated into this model. First, housing is explicitly modeled as both a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005328942
Mortgages are one-sided contracts under which the borrower may terminate the contract at any time, while the lender must commit to honoring the terms of the contract throughout its life. There are two aspects to this feature of the contract that are modeled in this paper. The first is that the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005328972
This paper examines the optimal (first-best) fiscal policy in a stochastic representative agent model that exhibits a ``keeping up with the Joneses'' utility function and imperfectly competitive product markets. We find that the optimal labor tax is a constant, whose sign is determined by the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005329006
This paper introduces a tractable, structural model of subjective beliefs. Since agents that plan for the future care about expected future utility flows, current felicity can be increased by believing that better outcomes are more likely. On the other hand, expectations that are biased towards...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005329011