Who is wealthy? This paper presents empirical estimates of household movements into and out of the top percents of the wealth distribution over individual life cycles. There are life-cycle motives and precautionary motives for wealth accumulation. The opportunities to accumulate wealth create...

We study risk behavior of Danish self-employed entrepreneurs, whose income risk may be driven by both exogenous factors and effort choice (moral hazard). Partial insurance is available through voluntary unemployment insurance (UI). Additional incentives to sign insurance contracts stem from a...

Who is wealthy? This paper presents empirical estimates of household movements into and out of the top percents of the wealth distribution over individual life cycles. There are life-cycle motives and precautionary motives for wealth accumulation. The opportunities to accumulate wealth create...

This paper uses micro data from four OECD countries (the United States, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands), to assess the determinants of household debt holding and to investigate whether or not credit constraints are important for household debt holding. We extend the existing literature in...

This paper uses micro data from four OECD countries (the United States, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands), to assess the determinants of household debt holding and to investigate whether or not credit constraints are important for household debt holding. We extend the existing literature in...

In this note we show that the standard, loglinear growth regression specification is consistent with one and only one model in the class of stochastic Ramsey models. This model is highly restrictive: it requires a Cobb-Douglas technology and a 100% depreciation rate and it implies that risk does...

Using a unique panel data set for rural households in Zimbabwe we estimate a

In this note we show that the standard, loglinear growth regression specificationis consistent with one and only one model in the class of stochastic Ramsey models. Thismodel is highly restrictive: it requires a Cobb-Douglas technology and a 100% depreciationrate and it implies that risk does...

Using a unique panel data set for rural households in Zimbabwe we estimate amicroeconomic model of growth under uncertainty, a stochastic version of the Ramsey modelwith livestock as the single asset. We use the estimation results in simulation experiments(over a 20-year period) to quantify the...

This paper examines the extent to which human capital theory can explain observed wage differentials in the Russian Federation. Wage and income dispersion have increased markedly in Russia in the six years since the transition began. Some studies conclude that this is an indicator that Russian...