I propose an intertemporal precautionary saving model in which the agent's labor income is subject to (possibly correlated) shocks with different degrees of persistence and volatility. However, he only observes his total income, not individual components. I show that partial observability of...

We analyze the optimal insurance demand in a dynamic setup with two periods. In addition to the possibility to insure, the investor is allowed to transfer wealth between the two periods, i.e. she can save. While it is difficult to interpret the optimal saving and insurance decisions without...

We analyze whether uncertainty related to the outcome of future policy results in precautionary saving. We focus on an important cause of policy uncertainty for households in the Netherlands: the possible limitation of the mortgage interest deduction. To isolate the effect of policy uncertainty...

We study the joint behavior of external debt, international reserves, and the real interest rate based on a dynamic regime-switching small open economy model that incorporates the salient features of economic crises in emerging markets. Our model allows an assessment of the two well-known...

Many households lack savings to cushion them from financial shocks. While behavioural economics offers insights into why some households fail to save, successful behavioural interventions to increase precautionary saving are elusive. We present two interventions, which were tested in a...

Economic policy uncertainty is proven to have an important effect on household consumption. However, the literature on its transmission mechanism and on comparing the consumption response of urban and rural households, especially in China, is limited. In this paper, we propose two channels...

This paper studies how household inequality shapes the effects of the zero lower bound (ZLB) on nominal interest rates on aggregate dynamics. To do so, we consider a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian (HANK) model with an occasionally binding ZLB and solve for its fully non-linear stochastic...

This paper studies how household inequality shapes the effects of the zero lower bound (ZLB) on nominal interest rates on aggregate dynamics. To do so, we consider a heterogeneous agent New Keynesian (HANK) model with an occasionally binding ZLB and solve for its fully nonlinear stochastic...

We analyze the saving motives of European households using micro-data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS), which is conducted by the European Central Bank. We find that the rank ordering of saving motives differs greatly depending on what criterion is used to rank them. For...