Over the last 20 years, the annual average U.S. and Canadian productivity growth rates have been 2.3% and 1.3%, respectively. The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we empirically document the firm size distribution and the productivity for the two countries. Second, we quantitatively...

This paper analyzes effects of tax-favored savings plans on savings and retirement decisions in a realistically specified life-cycle model. Individuals face mortality risk and stochastic earnings, allocate assets between conventional savings accounts (CSAs) and tax-deferred accounts (TDAs), make...

Most recent studies of dynamic macroeconomic relationships focus on models derived from optimising behaviour by economic agents. In most of these models, the eigenvalues of the associated dynamical system are real-valued and so the time-path of the system exhibits monotonic or near-monotonic...

This paper studies the role of credit market development in an economy with credit frictions. I examine how the provision of credit in connection with collateral assets affects economic performance and the business cycle. In the framework of an economy in which credit constraints arise because...

We investigate portfolio allocations and asset returns within a stochastic OLG economy with risky equity, generation-wide labor income shocks and portfolio nonnegativity constraints. Our model assumes a difference stationary endowment process, a young generation that faces labor income...

This notes proposes an approximation to the consumption function in the buffer-stock model.

Theory often suggests that wider household participation in stockholding reduces wealth inequality by expanding access. Empirical participation literature raises concerns that newcomers may be less educated, less sophisticated, and poorer. We use SCF data to decompose changes in wealth...

We argue that the equation commonly used in the estimation of the wealth effect on consumption might be unsuitable for that purpose. In particular, if the usual assumptions are employed, the derivation of the equation implies that the wealth effect is indeterminate. Furthermore, it implies that...