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Discrete Choice, Complete Markets, and Equilibrium
This paper characterizes the allocations that emerge in general equilibrium economies populated by households with preferences of the additive random utility type that make discrete consumption, employment or spatial decisions. We start with a complete markets economy where households can trade claims contingent upon the realizations of their preference shocks. We (i) establish a first and second welfare theorem, (ii) illustrate that in the absence of ex-ante trade, discrete choice economies are generically inefficient, (iii) show that complete markets are not necessary and a much smaller set ...
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Approximating Transition Dynamics with Discrete Choice
This paper develops a method to analyze policy reforms in environments with discrete choice, such as occupational choice or default. Computing transition paths in these settings is computationally challenging, particularly in models with substantial heterogeneity and many endogenous states. We extend perturbation methods to handle discrete choice by appropriately tracking both intensive-margin changes conditional on discrete choices that are relatively small and extensive-margin changes resulting from a switch in a discrete choice that are relatively large. The method is fast, scalable, and ...