Individuals' preferences underlying most economic behavior are likely to display substantial heterogeneity. This paper reports on direct measures of preference parameters relating to risk tolerance, time preference, and intertemporal substitution. These experimental measures are based on survey...

This paper evaluates the extent to which current knowledge of retirement, savings, pension and related behavior is sufficient for determining the effects of major policy initiatives on the incomes and wealth of the aged population of the United States. Data are presented from two new surveys,...

This paper presents an analysis of the sustainability of current account deficits in transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe. These countries have experienced large current account imbalances in the transition to a market economy. We consider a wide range of macroeconomic factors that...

Little is known about the characteristics of individual commercial paper issuers, or about the reasons for the countercyclical issuance of commercial paper in the aggregate. To address these issues we construct a new panel dataset linking Moody's data on commercial paper issues with Standard and...

This paper uses modern asset pricing theory to examine the behavior of short-term nominal interest rates over the past 25 years. The analysis investigates whether variation in the stochastic behavior of output and inflation can explain movements in the rate of interest. Our results reveal that...

The impact of loan commitment agreements on the way in which changes in monetary policy affects the economy is examined. In particular, the empirical relevance of quantity credit rationing in the transmission of monetary policy is studied with VAR models. We find evidence of a differential...

This paper examines the impact of the money supply and inflation rate announcements on interest rates. Survey data on expectations of the money supply and consumer and producer price indexes are used to distinguish anticipated and unanticipated components of the announcements. This distinction...

This paper examines the structure of expectations of the weekly money supply announcement in the late 1970s. The data used are from a weekly telephone survey of money market participants. The rationality and structure of expectations are explored with the data organized in three ways:the mean...

The effects of particular attributes of colleges on the subsequent earnings of individuals who attend are much discussed but rarely studied systematically. Here we seek to compare the earnings patterns of people attending different types of colleges. The classification of colleges used in this...