We investigate whether US households possess advance information about their future income and what this means for consumption insurance. Based on insights from a theoretical model, we propose a new test to detect advance information, which requires only panel data on consumption and income....

This paper empirically examines the behavioral precautionary saving hypothesis that uncertainty about future income triggers an increase in saving because of loss aversion. Guided by the theoretical model of Koszegi and Rabin (2009), we first extend their theoretical analysis to also consider...

We examine whether income and unemployment risks are compensated by individual wages. Using a portfolio approach we show that the marginal income risk effect on wages is always positive whereas the marginal unemployment risk effect crucially depends on the income risk. The interaction effect...

Former theoretical and empirical studies find that precautionary savings are reduced inthe presence of social security systems. The saving motive, however, does not change:individuals respond to increasing income risk by increasing their savings. Although thisstill holds for common tax and...

As a new approach we study individual wage compensations due to income risksmeasured by the variance and skewness of the wage distributions in different occupational groups. Using German administrative panel data and estimating a fixed effects model we confirm the expected positive effect of the...

This paper studies empirically the relationship between trade policy and individual income risk faced by workers. The analysis proceeds in three steps. First, longitudinal data on workers are used to estimate time-varying individual income risk parameters in various manufacturing sectors. The...

In this paper, we use administrative data from the social security to study income dynamics and income risk inequality in Spain between 2005 and 2018. We construct individual measures of income risk as functions of past employment history, income, and demographics. Focusing on males, we document...

Using detailed micro-data, this paper documents that households with lower income risk (and higher income levels) exhibit a higher Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) in response to transitory income shocks, all else being equal. This finding is particularly significant among unconstrained...

We discuss long-run growth in an economy which is subject to aggregate productivity shocks affecting all factors of production. We demonstrate that the presence of labor income risk unambiguously is an important determinant of long-run expected growth. The issue of dynamic inefficiency of the...