Showing 1 - 10 of 441
Poor families around the world spend a large fraction of their income on consumption of goods that appear to be useless in alleviating poverty, while saving at very low rates and neglecting investment in health and education. Such consumption patterns seem to be related to the persistence of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005504622
This paper employs cohort technique and Consumer Expenditure Survey data to construct average age-profiles of consumption and income over the working lives of typical households across different education and occupation groups. Using these profiles, we estimate a structural model of optimal...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005504201
unemployment insurance which provides (partial) insurance against employment risk and no insurance against persistent shocks. …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005123649
This paper presents estimates of wealth effects on consumer spending using the first wave of a new survey of household finances (EFF 2002) that contains direct measures of asset holdings and consumption. A distinguishing feature of the EFF is the availability of such information from a...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005136617
The long-run price elasticity of demand for credit is a key parameter for intertemporal modeling, policy levers, and lending practice. We use randomized interest rates, offered across 80 regions by Mexico’s largest microlender, to identify a 29-month dollars-borrowed elasticity of -1.9. This...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084221
Commodity prices are usually very slow to recover from adverse shocks. This is one of the reasons why it has proven so difficult either to smooth their effect or to stabilize them, and why it is sometimes argued that they should behave as if shocks were permanent. There is no reason however why...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005656239
The paper analyses the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence linking enterprise performance in transition economies to the macroeconomic environment. Macroeconomic instability is traced to the unsustainability of the fiscal-financial and monetary programmes of the state and to regulatory...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005136652
We develop and estimate a model of dynamic interactions where commitment is limited and contracts are incomplete to explain the patterns of income and consumption growth in village economies of less developed countries. Households can insure through both formal contracts and informal agreements,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005504414
High transaction and contracting costs are often thought to create credit and savings market failures in developing countries. The microfinance movement grew largely out of business process innovations and subsidies that reduced these costs. We examine an alternative approach, one that infuses...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011083509
Commitment devices offer an opportunity to restrict future choices. However, if severe restrictions deter participation, weaker restrictions may be a more effective means of changing behavior. We test this using a school-based commitment savings device for educational expenses in Uganda. We...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011083593