This paper presents the partial analytical solution to a model of periodic consumption that incorporates imperfect capital markets and uncertainty. Our model assumes that consumption decisions occur more frequently than income receipt. We show that the week specific consumption functions can be ordered. At low levels of wealth these functions exhibit a “ushaped” pattern between income receipts....

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impacts of adaptation to a falling health state on the demand for health and medical care. This is done by integrating adaptation processes in the pure consumption model of Grossman. We also modify the model in another direction by introducing an uncertain lifetime. Model simulations show that adaptation affects the health variables by lowering the in...

We consider the climate-policy implications of non-constant time preferences when there is no commitment to future policies. The conceptual and quantitative results follow from the observation that, with time-declining discounting, the unusual delays and persistence of climate impacts provide a commitment device for climate policy-makers, overturning a fundamental climate-policy conclusion from...

Time Preferences and Lifetime Outcomes This paper investigates the relationship between time preferences and lifetime social and economic behavior. We use a Swedish longitudinal dataset that links information from a large survey on children’s time preferences at age 13 to administrative registers spanning over five decades. Our results indicate a substantial adverse relationship between high di...

Most existing portfolio choice models ignore the prevalent periodic market closure and the fact that market volatility is significantly higher during trading periods. We find that market closure and the volatility difference across trading and nontrading periods significantly change optimal trading strategies. In addition, we numerically demonstrate that transaction costs can have a first order...

In a continuous-time economy with complete markets, we show how the heterogeneity in the individual consumers’ risk attitudes and impatience would affect the representative consumer’s counterparts. Specifically, our formulas tell us how his risk tolerance and impatience will change over time, and how his impatience will be affected by the changes in aggregate consumption levels. Under the assum...

This paper constructs a human-capital accumulation propelled endogenous growth model in which a home production sector is modeled explicitly. We con…rm …rst the basic equilibrium properties of a unique balanced-growth path, then conduct comparative statics and comparative dynamics exercises analytically. The implications of home production are explored in both the long and short runs, hence som...

This paper uses data from the British Household Panel Survey to shed further light on the fall in consumption at retirement (the “retirement-consumption puzzle”). Comparing food spending for men retiring involuntarily early (through ill health or redundancy) with spending for those who retire voluntarily, it finds a significant fall in spending only for those who retire involuntarily. This is c...

Differences in individual wealth holdings are widely viewed as a driving force of economic inequality. However, as this finding relies on crosssection data, we may confuse older with wealthier. We propose a new method to adjust for age effects in cross-sections, which eliminates transitory wealth inequality due to age, yet preserves inequality arising from other factors. This new method is supe...

Investing in Our Young People This paper reviews the recent literature on the production of skills of young persons. The literature features the multiplicity of skills that explain success in a variety of life outcomes. Noncognitive skills play a fundamental role in successful lives. The dynamics of skill formation reveal the interplay of cognitive and noncognitive skills, and the presence of c...