Precautionary savings and wealth distribution under habit formation preferences

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Díaz, A; Pijoan-Mas, J; Ríos-Rull, JV
• 署名单位: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; University of Pennsylvania; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF MONETARY ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3932
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3932(03)00078-3
• 发表日期: 2003
• 页码: 1257-1291
• 关键词: habit formation; precautionary savings; wealth distribution

摘要

We study the role of habit formation in shaping the amount of precautionary savings and the wealth distribution in heterogeneous agents model economies with idiosyncratic uncertainty. We adjust preferences to equate the Intertemporal Elasticity of Substitution in all model economies. We find that habit formation brings a hefty increase in precautionary savings and very mild reductions in the coefficient of variation and in the Gini index of wealth. These findings hold for both persistent and non-persistent habits, with the effects of the former being much larger. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.