Does it make us unhappier when we compare our consumptionwith that of the Joneses or our own past achievements? This paper tries ananswer by bringing together two disparate literatures: the macro (growth)theory on habit formation and the applied literature related to the Easterlinparadox. Using...

This paper extends the theory of optimal aging and death (Dalgaard and Strulik, 2010, 2013) towards uncertain death. Specifically, it is assumed that at any age the probability to survive depends on the number of health deficits accumulated. At the expense of less analytical tractability the...

Does it make us unhappier when we compare our current consumption with that of the Joneses or our own past achievements? This paper tries an answer without recurring on interpersonal utility comparisons. It calibrates an economy under three different assumptions, non-comparing utility, and...

This note extends the theory of optimal aging and death (Dalgaard and Strulik, 2010) towards uncertain death. Specifically, it is assumed that at any age the probability to survive depends on the number of health deficits accumulated. It is shown that the results in Dalgaard and Strulik (2011)...

This study presents a novel view on education and health behavior of individuals constrained by aging bodies. The aging process, i.e. the accumulation of health deficits over time, is built on recent insights from gerontology. The loss of body functionality, which eventually leads to death, can...

This paper provides the exact analytical solution for the standard model of endogenous growth when consumers have present-biased preferences and make time-inconsistent savings plans, which they revise continuously. It is shown that long-run growth is not necessarily lower under present-biased...

This paper integrates imperfect self-control into the standard model of endogenous growth. Individuals are conceptualized as dual-selves consisting of a long-run planner and a short-run doer. The long-run self can partly control the short-run self´s strife for immediate gratification. It is...

This paper provides the exact analytical solution for the standard model of endogenous growth when consumers have present-biased preferences and make time-inconsistent savings plans, which they revise continuously. It is shown that long-run growth is not necessarily lower under present-biased...

This paper provides a closed-form solution for the health capital model of health demand. The results are exploited in order to prove analytically the comparative dynamics of the model. Results are derived for the so called pure investment model, the pure consumption model and a combination of...

In this paper, I suggest a novel explanation for a hump-shaped ageconsumption profile, based on human aging. The model integrates health in the utility function and utilizes recent estimates on the effects of health on the marginal utility of consumption. The parsimonious model has a closed-form...