A model of the financial market is evaluated that consists of competing credit institutions (local lenders and financial intermediaries) to determine risk and intermediation effects on the financing obtained by entrepreneurs. Local lenders are considered to be principals with respect to the...

We consider optimal taxation in a model with wealth-poor and wealth-rich households, where wealth derives from business capital and home ownership, and investigate the consequences of a rising wealth inequality at steady state on these tax rates. The optimal tax structure includes some taxation...

Using a simple two-sector life cycle economy with housing services and bequests, we show that a rising labor efficiency in the general economy relative to the construction sector can go a long way toward explaining a significant fraction of the rising trends in wealth-to-income ratios, housing...