Insurance aspects of tax policies are studied in a simple intertemporal general equilibrium model in which agents are uncertain about both the future wage rates and the rate of return on capital. Taxation and lump-sum subsidy policies generally reduce employment, output, and the capital stock...

The authors study an economy where externalities provide an explicit role for intervention and technology shocks generate aggregate uncertainty. In laissez-faire there is too much unemployment. However, the authors show how to support the optimal allocation as a decentralized equilibrium using a...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze an optimal one-period labor contract between one firm and one worker when there is no precommitment on employment. I assume, instead, that implementation is the responsibility of a third party (e.g. court of law) that observes only the wage rate and the...

We compare, head on, two intergenerational institutions, a family compact – a parent makes a transfer to her parent in anticipation of a possible future gift from her children – with a pay-as-you-go, social security system in a lifecycle model with endogenous fertility wherein children are...

Evidence supports the notion that those who grow up to be patient do better than those who do not. Parents can inculcate the virtue of delayed gratification in their children by taking the right actions. We study a model in which parents, for selfish reasons, invest resources to raise patient...