We document a decline in the frequency of shopping trips United States since 1980 and consider its implications for measurement consumption inequality. A as households stock up on storable goods (i.e., inventory behavior) will lead to rise expenditure inequality when latter is measured at high frequency, even underlying unchanged. find that most recently documented 1980s can be accounted by thi...

This paper quantifies the contribution of technology gaps to international income inequality. I develop an endogenous growth model where cross-country differences in R&D efficiency and cross-industry innovation adoption opportunities together determine equilibrium gaps, trade patterns, Countries with higher are richer have comparative advantage more innovation-dependent industries. calibrat...

Earnings are riskier and more unequal for households born in the 1960s 1980s than those 1940s. Despite improvements financial conditions, younger generations less likely to be living their own homes older at same age. By using a life-cycle model with housing portfolio choice that includes flexible earnings risk aggregate asset price risk, I show changes dynamics account large part of reduction ...

Williams, Justin A. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2013. Biophysical Studies of Cholesterol in Unsaturated Phospholipid Model Membranes. Major Professor: Stephen R. Wassall. Cellular membranes contain a staggering diversity of lipids. The lipids are heterogeneously distributed to create regions, or domains, whose physical properties differ from the bulk membrane and play an essential role i...

This article aims to round out the well-established criticism in feminist research whereby measuring income poverty at household level tends underestimate among women. It demonstrates that while this indicator is underpinned by a conceptual bias could be qualified as sexist, not only because of measurement level, but rather manner which measured and it independent item individual factored into ...

Using detailed household-level data from Malawi on physical quantities of agricultural outputs and inputs, we measure farm total factor productivity (TFP), controlling for land quality, rain, transitory shocks. We find that operated size capital are essentially unrelated to TFP, implying substantial misallocation. The output gain a reallocation factors their efficient use among existing farmers...

In theory, regulators concerned about inequality will deviate from efficient two-part tariffs, charging lower-than-efficient fixed monthly fees and higher-than-efficient per-kilowatt-hour prices. To quantify that relationship, we develop a measure of the redistributive extent utility tariffs: “electric Gini.” Utilities with higher electric Ginis shift more costs households using relatively litt...

We estimate the size of inheritance flows in Switzerland as a share of total wealth and of national income over a long span of data, in close analogy to the study for France by Piketty (2011). We find that the relative importance of inheritance had been falling slightly up until the 1970s, but has been increasing strongly since. According to our central estimates, the annual flow of inheritance...

The paper assumes a continuum of two period-lived agents; agents are identical except for inherited income. Young agents allocate their inheritance between consumption and investment in human capital under uncertainty. In the second period they receive a wage proportional to the accumulated human capital and invest in offspring. Two main results arise: a low earning per unit of human capital le...

Based on the economic theory of the family, this paper constructs a model of remittances where the migrant, besides sending money to his family, also invests in his home country. The investment is looked after by a family member in return for some monetary compensation. The model focuses on two different cases: state-contingent transfers (transfers are tied to investment outcomes) and fixed tra...