This paper is no longer available on-line from the NBER. A revised version of the paper has been published as "Diversification Across Time" in the Journal of Portfolio Management 39 (Winter 2013), pp.73-86.

Pensions influence retirement decisions. The analysis provides a framework for assessing the phenomenon. The qualitative features of most defined benefit pension plans in the United States, as the first section demonstrates, can be used to induce optimal retirement choices. Pensions are viewed...

We present a model of the labor market with asymmetric information in which the equilibrium of the' market generates unemployment and job queues so that wages may serve as an effective screening device. This happens because more productive workers -- within any group of individuals with a given...

Strong bequest motives can explain low retirement spending, but so equally can strong precautionary motives. Given this identification problem, the recent tradition has been largely to ignore bequest motives. We develop a rich model of spending in retirement that allows for both motives, and...

A model of endogenous price adjustment under money growth is presented. Firms follow (s, S) pricing policies and price revisions are imperfectly synchronized. In the aggregate, price stickiness disappears and money is neutral. The connection between firm price adjustment and relative price...

In the current structure of the U.S. residential mortgage market, a fall in property values may make it very difficult for homeowners to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of falling interest rates. In this paper, we explain the institutional background for this effect and quantify its...

We show that a straight forward approximation of the distribution of durable goods holdings gives rise to a tractable equilibrium (S,s) model of durable demand. We analyze both competitive and monopoly supply. We show that equilibrium interactions lead to elongated impulse responses in demand,...

How significant are individual differences in self-control? Do these differences impact wealth accumulation? From where do they derive? Our survey-based measure of self-control provides insights into all three questions: 1.There are individual differences in self-control not only of a...

Prior research has established that consumption falls significantly at retirement. What is not known is the extent to which this fall is anticipated during the working years. Do working households expect such a large fall in consumption upon retirement, or are they taken by surprise? Using data...

In welfare theory it is standard to pick the consumption stream that maximizes the welfare of the representative agent. We argue against this position, and show that a benevolent social planner will generally place a greater weight on future consumption than does the representative agent. Our...