Significant departures from log normality are observed in income data, in violation of Gibrat’s law. We identify a new empirical regularity, which is that the distribution of consumption expenditures across households is, within cohorts, closer to log normal than the distribution of income. We...

This paper characterizes all utility derived demand systmes having Engel curves that are linear in both income and an arbitrary function of income. This class encompasses virtually all utility derived demand systems that have been estimated in the past using ag gregate data with explicit...

<p>Significant departures from log normality are observed in income data, in violation of Gibrat's law. We identify a new empirical regularity, which is that the distribution of consumption expenditures across households is, within cohorts, closer to log normal than the distribution of income. We...</p>