In this paper, we describe the properties of the optimal allocation of consumption in a world with moral hazard and hidden borrowing and lending. We discuss how and under what conditions the efficient allocation can be distinguished from that of the permanent income (self-insurance) model. We...

Data on the life-cycle profiles of inequality in wages, earnings, hours worked, and consumption contain precious information for answering questions about the ability of households to insure labor market risk and about the sources of this risk. This paper demonstrates that the choice of whether...

We examine how technological change affects wage inequality and unemployment in a cali-brated model of matching frictions in the labor market. We distinguish between two polar cases studied in the literature: a "creative destruction" economy, where new machines enter chiefly through new matches...