Permanent Income Shocks, Target Wealth, and the Wealth Gap

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jappelli, Tullio; Pistaferri, Luigi
• 署名单位: University of Naples Federico II; Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20220160
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 102-125
• 关键词: life-cycle; consumption; uncertainty

摘要

We test the key implication of the buffer-stock model, namely that any revision in permanent income leads to a proportionate revision in target wealth. We use panel data on the amount of wealth that people think they must hold for precautionary purposes. Using the covariance restrictions that the model imposes on the joint behavior of income and target wealth, we find that households indeed revise, approximately one for one, their target wealth in response to permanent income shocks. The speed of adjustment of actual wealth to target wealth is similar to that obtained in simulations of a buffer-stock model. (JEL D15, E21, G51)