A key open question in economics is the practical, portable modeling of bounded rationality. In this short note, I report ongoing progress that is more fully developed elsewhere. I present some results from a new model in which the decision-maker builds a simplified representation of the world....

This paper explores sources of complexity in dynamic optimization, examining how individuals navigate variation in incomes, prices, and returns in ten-period consumption-saving decisions. Our findings reveal that dynamic optimization poses significant challenges, resulting in suboptimal choices...

We apply numerical dynamic programming to multi-asset dynamic portfolio optimization problems with proportional transaction costs. Examples include problems with one safe asset plus two to six risky stocks, and seven to 360 trading periods in a finite horizon problem. These examples show that it...

This paper compares the dynamics of two general equilibrium models of endogenous growth in which agents have comparison utility.' In the inward-looking' economy, individuals care about how their consumption in the current period compares to their own consumption in the past (one way to describe...

We examine the relationship between income growth and saving using both cross-country and household data. At the aggregate level, we find that growth Granger causes saving, but that saving does not Granger cause growth. Using household data, we find that households with predictably higher income...

This paper documents the life-cycle patterns of household portfolios in Canada, and investigates several hypotheses about asset accumulation and allocation. Inferences are drawn from the 1999 Survey of Financial Security, with some comparisons to earlier wealth surveys from 1977 and 1984. I find...