Dynamic general equilibrium models are required to evaluate policies applied at the
national level. To use these models to make quantitative forecasts requires knowledge of an …

Consumption is the largest component of GDP. Since the 1950s, the life cycle and the
permanent income models have constituted the main analytical tools to the study of …

We collect 2735 estimates of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption from
169 published studies that cover 104 countries during different time periods. The estimates …

The question of whether higher–lifetime income households save a larger fraction of their
income was the subject of much debate in the 1950s and 1960s, and while not resolved, it …

We model a consumer's efforts to reduce the discount on future utilities. Our analysis shows
how wealth, mortality, addictions, uncertainty, and other variables affect the degree of time …

Balanced growth models are commonly used in macroeconomics because they are
consistent with the well-known Kaldor facts regarding economic growth. These models …

Micro data studies of household saving often find a significant group in the population with
virtually no wealth, raising concerns about heterogeneity in motives for saving. In particular …

Cross-country labor productivity differences are larger in agriculture than in non-agriculture.
We propose a new explanation for these patterns in which the self-selection of …

We assess the empirical importance of changes in income and relative prices for structural
transformation in the postwar United States. We explain two natural approaches to the data …

A decomposition of aggregate labor productivity based on internationally comparable data
reveals that a high share of employment and low labor productivity in agriculture are mainly …