Perla and Tonetti (2014) and Lucas and Moll (2014) study technology diffusion in isolation, in environments without the generation of new ideas. Without new ideas, growth cannot continue forever if there is a finite technology frontier. This paper examines, in an economy in which firms choose to...

While much of recent growth literature has focused on innovation in the technology frontier, less attention has been paid to the role of the least productive agents in generating growth. We develop an analytically tractable model where growth is created as a positive externality from risk taking...

This paper studies international technology and idea flows and their effects on growth and the welfare gains from openness. We analyze a model where producers decide either to acquire productivity-increasing ideas through search or to produce domestically and potentially for export with their...

Strong bequest motives can explain low retirement spending, but so equally can strong precautionary motives. Given this identification problem, the recent tradition has been largely to ignore bequest motives. We develop a rich model of spending in retirement that allows for both motives, and...

Professional retirement planning advice relies to a great extent on the determination of how much retirement income can be provided by systematic withdrawals from an investment portfolio. Because future investment returns, inflation rates, and how long a retiree will live are unknown, one cannot...

This paper examines the response of a large group of TIAA-CREF retirement plan participants to participation in an asset-allocation guidance session in which a software-driven allocation tool plays a major role. Several aspects of the quot;treatment effectquot; of the guidance session on...

Professional retirement planning advice relies to a great extent on the determination of how much retirement income can be provided by systematic withdrawals from an investment portfolio. Because future investment returns, inflation rates, and how long a retiree will live are unknown, one cannot...