Most new retired workers in 1982 owned some type of asset, usually a savings, checking, or credit union account, according to data obtained by the Social Security Administration (SSA) in its New Beneficiary Survey. Many recently retired workers also owned their home, often mortgage-free. Homeownership was their most significant asset in terms of its median value. Comparatively few retirees owne...

This paper investes testable restrictions on the time-series behavior of consumption and asset returns implied by a representative agent model with the spirit of capitalism in which intertemporal preference is represented by a utility function that generalizes conventional, time-additive, expected utility. In the recursive structure of preference, we examines the implication for consumption, po...

Microcredit is advocated as a development tool that has the potential to reduce poverty, empower participants, and improve health. Results of several studies have shown that the extreme poor, or the ultra-poor, often are unable to benefit from traditional microcredit programmes and can, as a result of taking a loan they cannot repay, sink deeper into economic and social poverty. This case study...

Previous studies have shown that social comparison influences individual's fairness consideration and other-regarding behavior. However, it is not clear how social comparison affects the brain activity in evaluating fairness during asset distribution. In this study, participants, acting as recipients in the ultimatum game, were informed not only of offers to themselves but also of the average a...

This paper shows theoretically and empirically that an aggregate Euler equation relates the real interest rate to the growth rate of per capita consumption and the ratio of private and social security wealth plus asset income to consumption. Using the estimated Euler equation, the paper then calculates the steady-state effects of social security reform. Reforms that reduce the ratio of social s...

This paper shows theoretically and empirically that an aggregate Euler equation relates the growth rate of per capita consumption to the real interest rate, the ratio of private wealth plus asset income to consumption, and the ratio of social security wealth to consumption. Using the estimated Euler equation, the paper then calculates the steady-state effects of social security reform. Reforms ...

Shucksmith (2012) has recently suggested that rural research might be refreshed by incorporating theoretical insights that have emerged through a renewal of class analysis. This article seeks to advance this proposed research agenda by exploring the concept of asset-based class analysis and its association with the concept of social capital. The article explores connections between social capit...