Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings PDF Author: Jonathan Skinner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
This paper argues that precautionary savings against uncertain income comprise a large fraction of aggregate savings. A closed-form approximation for life cycle consumption subject to uncertain interest rates and earnings is derived by taking a second-order Taylor-Series approximation of the Euler equations. Using empirical measures of income uncertainty, I find that precautionary savings comprises up to 56 percent of aggregate life cycle savings. The derived expression for n-period optimal consumption is easily implemented for econometric estimation, and accords well with the exact numerical solution. Empirical comparisons of savings patterns among occupational groups using the Consumer Expenditure Survey contradict the predictions of the life cycle model. Riskier occupations, such as the self-employed and salespersons, save less than other occupations, although this finding may in part reflect unobservable differences in risk aversion among occupations

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings PDF Author: Jonathan Skinner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
This paper argues that precautionary savings against uncertain income comprise a large fraction of aggregate savings. A closed-form approximation for life cycle consumption subject to uncertain interest rates and earnings is derived by taking a second-order Taylor-Series approximation of the Euler equations. Using empirical measures of income uncertainty, I find that precautionary savings comprises up to 56 percent of aggregate life cycle savings. The derived expression for n-period optimal consumption is easily implemented for econometric estimation, and accords well with the exact numerical solution. Empirical comparisons of savings patterns among occupational groups using the Consumer Expenditure Survey contradict the predictions of the life cycle model. Riskier occupations, such as the self-employed and salespersons, save less than other occupations, although this finding may in part reflect unobservable differences in risk aversion among occupations

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption and Precautionary Saving

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption and Precautionary Saving PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings

Risky Income, Life Cycle Consumption, and Precautionary Savings PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The Empirical Importance of Precautionary Saving

The Empirical Importance of Precautionary Saving PDF Author: Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
One of the basic motives for saving is the accumulation of wealth to insure future welfare. Both introspection and extant research on consumption insurance find that people face substantial risks that they do not fairly pool. In theory, the consumption and wealth accumulation of price-taking households in an economy with incomplete markets differs substantially from the behavior of these same households in the equivalent economy with complete-markets. The question we address in this article is whether we find this difference to be large in practice. What is the empirical importance of precautionary saving? We provide a simple decomposition that characterizes the importance of precautionary saving in the U.S. economy. We use this decomposition as an organizing framework to present four main findings: (a) the concavity of the consumption policy rule, (b) the importance of precautionary saving for life-cycle saving and wealth accumulation, (c) the contribution of changes in risk to fluctuations in aggregate consumption and (d) the significant impact of incomplete markets on aggregate fluctuations in calibrated general equilibrium models. We conclude with directions for future research.

Risk Sharing and Precautionary Saving

Risk Sharing and Precautionary Saving PDF Author: Luigi Guiso
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Consumption Over the Life Cycle

Consumption Over the Life Cycle PDF Author: Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
This paper employs a synthetic cohort technique and Consumer Expenditure Survey data to construct average age-profiles of consumption and income over the working lives of typical households across different education and occupation groups. Using these profiles, we estimate a structural model of optimal life-cycle consumption expenditures in the presence of realistic labor income uncertainty. The model fits the profiles quite well. In addition to providing tight estimates of the discount rate and risk aversion, we find that consumer behavior changes strikingly over the life-cycle. Young consumers behave as buffer-stock agents. Around age 40, the typical household starts accumulating liquid assets for retirement, and its behavior mimics more closely that of a certainty equivalent consumer. This change in behavior is mostly driven by the life-cycle profile of expected income. Our methodology provides a natural decomposition of saving into its precautionary and retirement components.

Precautionary Saving and the Marginal Propensity to Consume

Precautionary Saving and the Marginal Propensity to Consume PDF Author: Miles S. Kimball
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumption (Economics)
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Precautionary Savings and Income Uncertainty

Precautionary Savings and Income Uncertainty PDF Author: Keiko Murata
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consumer behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Intertemporal Substitution in Macroeconomics

Intertemporal Substitution in Macroeconomics PDF Author: N. Gregory Mankiw
Publisher: Palala Press
ISBN: 9781378109380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Household Welfare, Precautionary Saving and Social Insurance Under Multiple Sources of Risk

Household Welfare, Precautionary Saving and Social Insurance Under Multiple Sources of Risk PDF Author: Ivan Vidangos
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cost and standard of living
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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