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...

We prove that for any incomplete market and any concave utilityfunction the marginal propensities to consume and to save are alwayspositive. Furthermore, we introduce a class of incomplete markets thatincludes almost all well known examples of market incompleteness infinance and macroeconomics....

This paper introduces state dependent utility into the standard Mehra and Prescott (1985) economy by allowing the representative agents coefficient of relative risk aversion to vary with the underlying economys growth rate. Existence of equilibrium is proved and its asymptotic properties...

Watching TV is a major human activity. Because of its immediate benefits at negligible immediatemarginal costs it is for many people tempting to view TV rather than to pursue more engaging activities.As a consequence, individuals with incomplete control over, and foresight into, their...