his lifetime income and the lifetime income of his reference group; hence the paper offers a permanent income version of … the Duesenberry's relative income hypothesis. Across households the saving ratio increases with income while aggregate … saving is independent of the income distribution. Positional concerns lead agents to over-consume, over-work and under …

saving plans when they face different income profiles. We find that for every income profile we consider, subjects on average … and any sudden drop in income reduces their lifetime utility. We conduct a specification search for a model to explain our …

Using panel data for a sample of households in Utah from 1850 to 1900 we find income and wealth age profiles that are … a relationship between age-income and age-wealth profiles that is consistent with a life-cycle model of consumption … given a concave and peaked age-income profile: households accumulate and then begin to draw down wealth holdings, the age …