This paper examines aggregate savings in a general equilibrium model where infinitely lived households face volatile (and possibly uncertain) income paths, hold a risk-free asset, and face a liquidity constraint. I first show that the equilibrium capital stock in an economy without uncertainty,...

We study the effects of an annuity market imperfection on individual agents' labour supply and retirement decisions and on the macroeconomic growth rate in an overlapping generations model with endogenous growth. We model imperfect annuities by introducing a load factor on the interest rate...

A major challenge in the study of saving behavior is how to disentangle different motives for saving. We approach this question in the context of an entire life-cycle model. Specifically, we identify the importance of different saving motives by simultaneously accounting for wealth accumulation...

This paper revisits the debate on whether the expansion of the tax-favored saving accounts stimulates savings and helps households become more financially secured for retirement. We build a dynamic general equilibrium model of overlapping generations and find that the policy can have a strong...

This paper proposes an integrated framework to analyze jointly two key issues: the emergence of global imbalances and the precautionary motive for accumulating reserves. Standard models of general equilibrium would predict modest current account surpluses in the emerging markets if they face...

This paper studies the determinants of inequality in an infnitehorizon general equilibrium model. Missing capital markets decreases motivations for capital accumulation among the poor, while uncertainty about future income leads to precautionary savings. The different returns to saving faced by...

In the presence of uninsurable idiosyncratic risk, the optimal credit contract allows for the possibility of default. In addition, the optimal contract incorporates a precautionary savings motive over and above what agents would otherwise save. When default is sufficiently high, credit markets...

The total face amount of terminated life insurance in the U.S. amounts to over two trillion dollars per annum. Little known is that, instead of allowing insurance carriers to pocket the premiums paid until termination and avoid the death claim, many policyholders may realize their policies'...

Flat consumption taxes have no effect on long run aggregate capital formation when markets are complete. In this note, we provide conditions on utility under which a similar statement is true under incomplete markets. When these conditions are satisfied, using a flat consumption tax to finance...

What model features and calibration strategies yield a large average marginal propensity to consume (MPC) in heterogeneous agent models? Through a systematic investigation of models with different preferences, dimensions of ex-ante heterogeneity, income processes and asset structure, we show...