753 research outputs found
Code and data files for Mexico in the 1990s: the main cross-sectional facts
No full textThis folder contains all files necessary to replicate the results of "Mexico in the 1990s: the Main Cross-Sectional Facts" by Orazio Attanasio & Chiara Binelli, Review of Economic Dynamics, January 2010.</span
Intertemporal choice and the cross-sectional variance of marginal utility
No full textThe theory of intertemporal choice predicts that the cross-sectional variance of the marginal utility of consumption is equal to its own lag plus a constant and a random component. Using general preference specifications and some assumptions about the nature of the random component, we provide an explicit test of this hypothesis. Our approach circumvents the necessity to identify a pure age profile of the cross-sectional variance of consumption and yields a well-specified statistical test. This test is applied to data from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The results are remarkably consistent with the restrictions implied by the theory of intertemporal consumption choices
Declaration of Intention for Orazio Colletto
No full textDeclaration of Intention to become a citizen of the United States, as filled out and signed by Orazio Colletto. Applicant lists himself as a 58 year old farmer residing in Hammonton, New Jersey, born in Bordenaro, Italy on 17 January 1857, who sailed on the US bound vessel S.S. Prince. Declaration submitted and sworn June 3, 1915
Mexico in the 1990s: the main cross-sectional facts
No full textThis paper describes the main cross-sectional facts on individual and household earnings, labor supply, income, consumption and wealth in Mexico in the decade of the 1990s. We use two different data sources: the Mexican Employment Survey (ENEU) and the Mexican Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH). The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we integrate the two surveys to provide a complete characterization of the changes in employment, wages, income, consumption and wealth in the 1990s. Second, we highlight some distinctive features that characterize the Mexican economy in this decade. In particular, we focus on the changes in the size of the informal sector and we study the relationship between changes in informality and changes in wage inequality. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Intertemporal Consumption Choices, Transaction Costs and Limited Participation in Financial Markets: Reconciling Data and Theory
No full textThis paper builds a unifying framework based on the theory of intertemporal consumption choices that brings together the limited participation-based explanation of the Consumption Capital Asset Pricing Model’s poor empirical performance and the transaction costs-based explanation of incomplete portfolios. Using the implications of the consumption model and observed household consumption and portfolio choices, we identify the preference parameters of interest and a lower bound for the costs rationalizing non-participation in financial markets. Using the US Consumer Expenditure Survey and assuming isoelastic preferences, we estimate the coefficient of relative risk aversion at 1.7 and a cost bound of 0.4% of non-durable consumption.
Our estimate of the preference parameter is theoretically plausible and the bound sufficiently small to be likely to be exceeded by the actual total (observable and unobservable) costs of participating in financial markets
Household Savings in the USA
No full textIn this paper we study the saving behaviour of U.S.A. households.
We use micro data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey
from 1982 to 1995. We employ synthetic cohort techniques
to characterize the life cycle profile of saving rates and other variables of interest. In particular, we pay attention to the
distinction between mandatory saving and discretionary saving.
We then relate our evidence to the recent policy debate on saving incentives and their usefulness
Inequality in Living Standards since 1980: Income Tells Only a Small Part of the Story
No full textStudies of wage and income inequality among U.S. citizens over the past thirty years have engendered the common wisdom that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. But is it really that simple? In this meticulous economic study, Orazio P. Attanasio, Erich Battistin, and Mario Padula contend that the evolution of income and wage inequalities offers only a partial picture of changes in prosperity in recent decades. Studying changes in the distribution of consumption and expenditure helps to amplify this picture--income, after all, is valued in large part because it allows consumption--and yields a more complete understanding of economic well-being in America.
Inequality in Living Standards since 1980: Income Tells Only a Small Part of the Story finds that income-poor households do not always coincide with consumption-poor households--income-poor households often report spending considerably higher than their income level. Income and consumption patterns also vary according to the age and education level of an individual or household head; a thorough and nuanced understanding of economic well-being should therefore consider both differences across groups and inequalities within groups. Finally, examining income levels in conjunction with consumption patterns provides valuable insights about the nature of income shocks that affect households (whether positive or negative) and the instruments available for smoothing out these shocks, such as personal savings, borrowing, and private or public transfers. Temporary shocks may not affect consumption and welfare at all, while the effects of permanent shocks on the same variables are more significant.
Has economic inequality worsened in the United States since 1980? Attanasio, Battistin, and Padula conclude that although inequality as measured by consumption has increased, that increase is not as large as when inequality is measured by income and wages alone. This thorough analysis has important implications for the design of U.S. economic policy and welfare programs in the twenty-first century
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