This paper studies the effect of deep recessions on intergenerational inequality by quantifying the welfare effects on households at different phases of the life cycle. Deep recessionary episodes are characterized by large declines in the prices of real and financial assets and in employment....

Several studies have linked rising insolvency rates to increasing inequality and argued that this might be explained by individuals' desire to "Keep up with the Joneses". Using unique administrative register data on individual insolvencies in Sweden, I test whether the probability to become...

Marriage is one of the most important determinants of economic prosperity, yet most existing theories of inequality ignore the role of the family. This paper documents that the cross-sectional distributions of earnings and wealth display a high degree of concentration, even when disaggregated...

Several studies have linked rising insolvency rates to increasing inequality and argued that this might be explained by individuals' desire to "Keep up with the Joneses". Using unique administrative register data on individual insolvencies in Sweden, I test whether the probability to become...

This paper studies the effect of deep recessions on intergenerational inequality by quantifying the welfare effects on households at different phases of the life cycle. Deep recessionary episodes are characterized by large declines in the prices of real and financial assets and in employment....

China's fast growth is perceived as a major determinant of its savings glut that contributes to global imbalances, but China's income inequality has been largely overlooked as the economy moves rapidly toward the Kuznets curve peak. This paper provides a new explanation for the complex issue of...

We consider a model of economic growth with altruistic consumers who care both about their consumption relative to others and the disposable income of their offsprings. We show that if the parameter accounting for the importance of positional concerns is lower than a certain threshold, then the...

Many consumers below the top of the distribution of a representative population by cognitive abilities barely react to monetary and fiscal policies that aim to stimulate consumption and borrowing, even when they are financially unconstrained and despite substantial debt capacity. Differences in...

Unique administrative data on a representative population's cognitive abilities, spending, and financials reveal that consumers at or below median cognitive abilities barely react when their incentives to spend or borrow change, even if they earn high incomes and are financially unconstrained...