Why did the volatility of U.S. real GDP decline by more than the volatility of final sales with the Great Moderation in the mid-1980s? One possible explanation is that firms shifted their inventory behaviour towards a greater emphasis on production smoothing. We investigate the role of...

Why did the volatility of U.S. real GDP decline by more than the volatility of final sales with the Great Moderation in the mid-1980s? One possible explanation is that firms shifted their inventory behavior towards a greater emphasis on production smoothing. We investigate the role of...

Why did the volatility of U.S. real GDP decline by more than the volatility of final sales with the Great Moderation in the mid-1980s? One explanation is that firms shifted their inventory behavior towards a greater emphasis on production smoothing. We investigate the role of inventories in the...

We extend a widely-used semi-structural model to identify and estimate dynamic consumption elasticities with respect to transitory income shocks. Applying our model to household survey data, we find a structural break in marginal propensities to consume following the end of the housing market...

Blundell, Pistaferri, and Preston (American Economic Review, 2008, 98(5), 1887-1921) report an estimate of household consumption insurance with respect to permanent income shocks of 36%. In replicating findings for their model and data, we find that this estimate is distorted by a code error and...

Why did the volatility of U.S. real GDP decline by more than the volatility of final sales with the Great Moderation in the mid-1980s? One explanation is that firms shifted their inventory behavior towards a greater emphasis on production smoothing. We investigate the role of inventories in the...

We extend a semi-structural model of household income and consumption to allow for dynamic consumption elasticities with respect to transitory income shocks. Likelihood-based inference for our model accurately estimates consumption insurance against income shocks in simulated data from a...