In the early 2000s, eight Norwegian energy producing municipalities sold up to ten years of future electricity earnings and let two brokers from Terra Securities make investments on their behalf. In the wake of the 2007 credit crash the municipalities lost up to 80 percent of their assets. This...

We study asset-tested unemployment insurance in an incomplete markets model with moral hazard during job search. Asset testing has two counteracting effects on welfare. On the one hand, it improves consumption insurance by introducing state contingent transfers to agents most in need. On the...

We study asset-tested unemployment insurance in an incomplete markets model with moral hazard during job search. Asset testing has two counteracting effects on welfare. On the one hand, it improves consumption insurance by introducing state contingent transfers to agents most in need. On the...

A series of empirical studies has documented that job search behavior depends on the financial situation of the unemployed. Starting from this observation, we ask how unemployment insurance policy should take the individual financial situation into account. We use a quantitative model with a...

The world economy is riven by very large imbalances, with the U.S. economy exhibiting high levels of consumption but low savings ratios and a high current account deficit while China provides the mirror opposite. In this paper, we explore the structural causes of these imbalances that underpin...

This paper analyzes the effects of children on income, con sumption and saving profiles for Mexican families. We use the Life Cycle Model that allow us to follow the families behavior along his life cycle, while our empirical work is based on synthetic panels as pro posed by Browning, Deaton and...