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,...

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...

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'...

Empirical evidence shows that in a labor market characterized by a severe degree of informality, unemployment insurance (UI) has different effects that most of the literature, based on developed countries, address. First, UI takers are incentivized to work in the informal sector while collecting...

This paper applies Canova JAE 1994 methodology to perform a thorough sensitivity analysis for the Aiyagari QJE 1994 economy. This is a calibrated GE model with incomplete markets and uninsurable income risk, designed to quantify the size of precautionary savings and the degree of wealth...

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...

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...

During the U.S. Great Recession, investment declined more among firms whose indebtedness increased. Instead of investing, they increased their leverage and expanded their stock of safe assets; that is, they borrowed to save. I model borrowing to save as an optimal portfolio choice when firms...