This study estimates the adequacy of retirement wealth of pre-retirement households using a 1995 national sample of households. Retirement wealth is projected using planned retirement age and portfolio allocation. Retirement needs are estimated from expenditure functions, and 52% of the...

This article focuses on the effect of race and ethnicity on financial risk tolerance. Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to be willing to take some financial risk but more likely to be willing to take substantial financial risk than Whites, after controlling for the effects of other variables....

If married women view participation in the labor force as providing insurance against the negative economic consequences of divorce, then married women with higher expectations of divorce will be more likely to be employed. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1968-1983, is used to estimate the...

The authors develop a life-cycle model to study the effects of house price changes on household consumption and welfare. The model explicitly incorporates the dual feature of housing as both a consumption good and an investment asset and allows for costly adjustments in housing and mortgage...

We develop a life-cycle model that explicitly incorporates the dual feature of housing as both a consumption good and an investment asset. Our analysis indicates that the consumption and welfare consequences of house price changes on individual households vary significantly. In particular, the...

We estimate a structural model of optimal life-cycle housing and nonhousing con- sumption in the presence of labor income and house price uncertainties. The model postulates constant elasticity of substitution between housing service and nonhousing consumption, and explicitly incorporates a...

understanding of housing market developments on general activities. We use the estimated model to conduct policy experiments and find that consumption responds nonlinearly to changes in housing wealth with an average marginal propensity to consume out of housing wealth of about 5 percent.

Supersedes Working Paper 09-7. We estimate a structural model of optimal life-cycle housing and nonhousing consumption in the presence of labor income and house price uncertainties. The model postulates constant elasticity of substitution between housing service and nonhousing consumption and...

Consumer debt delinquency, as measured by being 60 or more days late in in debt payment, is an indicator of financial ill health. Using six datasets of the 1992-2007 U.S. Surveys of Consumer Finances, this study examines consumer debt delinquency over life cycle stages. Inspired by previous...