Search Results

SORT BY: PREVIOUS / NEXT
Jel Classification:D91 

Working Paper
The Sufficient Statistic Approach: Predicting the Top of the Laffer Curve

We provide a formula for the tax rate at the top of the Laffer curve as a function of three elasticities. Our formula applies to static models and to steady states of dynamic models. One of the elasticities that enters our formula has been estimated in the elasticity of taxable income literature. We apply standard empirical methods from this literature to data produced by reforming the tax system in a model economy. We find that these standard methods underestimate the relevant elasticity in models with endogenous human capital accumulation.
Working Papers , Paper 2015-38

Working Paper
In Search of Lost Time Aggregation

In 1960, Working noted that time aggregation of a random walk induces serial correlation in the first difference that is not present in the original series. This important contribution has been overlooked in a recent literature analyzing income and consumption in panel data. I examine Blundell, Pistaferri and Preston (2008) as an important example for which time aggregation has quantitatively large effects. Using new techniques to correct for the problem, I find the estimate for the partial insurance to transitory shocks, originally estimated to be 0.05, increases to 0.24. This larger ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2019-075

Report
Do Consumers Rely More Heavily on Credit Cards While Unemployed?

Leading up to the Great Recession, households increased their credit card debt by over 16 percent ($121 billion) during the five-year period from 2004 to 2009. The unemployment rate simultaneously began to rise in 2008, increasing from 5.0 percent in January 2008 to a high of 10.0 percent in October of 2009. During the recovery, from 2009 to 2014, credit card debt fell by more than 25 percent, as the unemployment rate returned to near prerecession levels. These coincident developments have led to speculation that consumers facing unemployment or job uncertainty may have increased their ...
Consumer Payments Research Data Reports , Paper 2016-06

Working Paper
In Search of a Risk-free Asset

To attract retail time deposits, over 7,000 FDIC insured U.S. commercial banks publicly post their yield offers. I document an economically sizable and highly pro-cyclical cross-sectional dispersion in these yield offers during the period 1997 - 2011. Banks adjusted their yields rigidly and asymmetrically with median duration of 7 weeks in response to increasing or constant Fed Funds rate target regimes and 3 weeks during regimes of decreasing Fed Fund rate target. I investigate to what extent information (search) costs on the part of the investors in this market can explain the observed ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2014-108

Working Paper
The Conundrum of Zero APR: An Analytical Framework

We document the prevalence of promotional pricing of credit card debt in the U.S. and develop an analytic framework to study how interest rates on multiperiod credit line contracts should be set when debt is unsecured and defaultable. We show that according to the basic theory of unsecured credit — suitably extended to allow for promotions — interest rates should price in the expected default risk on a period-by-period basis. The inspection of our model’s mechanism implies that time-consistent consumption behavior is crucial for this result; accordingly, modeling time-inconsistent ...
Working Papers , Paper 23-06

Working Paper
Returning to the Nest: Debt and Parental Co-residence Among Young Adults

This paper examines the relationship between a young adults' debt burden and the decision to co-reside with a parent. Using a quarterly panel of young adults' credit histories, and controlling for age, county, and quarter fixed effects, and local demographic characteristics, unemployment rates, and house prices, we estimate the relationship between current period debt and subsequent decisions to co-reside with a parent. Our results indicate that indebtedness--as measured by average loan balances, declining credit scores and delinquency on accounts--increases flows into parental co-residence. ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2014-80

Working Paper
Income Differences and Health Disparities: Roles of Preventive vs. Curative Medicine

Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) I find that early in life the rich spend significantly more on health care, whereas from middle to very old age the poor outspend the rich by 25% in the US. Furthermore, while low-income individuals are less likely to incur medical expenses, they are more prone to experiencing extreme expenses when they do seek care. To account for these facts, I develop and estimate a life-cycle model of two types of health capital: physical and preventive. Physical health capital determines survival probabilities, whereas preventive health capital ...
Working Papers , Paper 2023-025

Working Paper
Rushing into American Dream? House Prices, Timing of Homeownership, and Adjustment of Consumer Credit

In this paper we use a large panel of individuals from Consumer Credit Panel dataset to study the timing of homeownership as a function of credit constraints and expectations of future house price. Our panel data allows us to track individuals over time and we model the transition probability of their first home purchase. We find that in MSAs with highest quartile house price growth, the median individual become homeowners earlier by 5 years in their lifecycle compared to MSAs with lowest quartile house price growth. The result suggests that the effect of expectation dominates the effect of ...
Working Paper Series , Paper WP-2013-13

Journal Article
Quantitative Macro Versus Sufficient Statistic Approach: A Laffer Curve Dilemma?

This article highlights two approaches to tax policy for the top 1 percent of earners. On the one hand are dynamic general equilibrium models requiring complicated calibration and simulation algorithms and strong structural assumptions. On the other hand is the sufficient statistic approach, which attempts to parsimoniously reach the trinity of empirical, theoretical, and policy relevance. The author illustrates ongoing work highlighting explicit connections between these two approaches.
Review , Volume 97 , Issue 3 , Pages 257-67

Working Paper
How important is variability in consumer credit limits?

Credit limit variability is a crucial aspect of the consumption, savings, and debt decisions of households in the United States. Using a large panel, this paper first demonstrates that individuals gain and lose access to credit frequently and often have their credit limits reduced unexpectedly. Credit limit volatility is larger than most estimates of income volatility and varies over the business cycle. While typical models of intertemporal consumption fix the credit limit, I introduce a model with variable credit limits. Variable credit limits create a reason for households to hold both high ...
Working Papers , Paper 14-8

FILTER BY year

FILTER BY Content Type

FILTER BY Author

Nakajima, Makoto 9 items

Badel, Alejandro 4 items

Ozkan, Serdar 4 items

Akana, Tom 3 items

Dettling, Lisa J. 3 items

Hsu, Joanne W. 3 items

show more (86)

FILTER BY Jel Classification

E21 28 items

D14 15 items

D12 9 items

I13 7 items

D31 6 items

show more (73)

FILTER BY Keywords

credit cards 5 items

Debt 4 items

Default 4 items

Health insurance 4 items

Heterogeneous agents 4 items

health production 4 items

show more (214)

PREVIOUS / NEXT