We document that home ownership of households with "heads" aged 25-44 years fell substantially between 1980 and 2000 and recovered only partially during the 2001{2005 housing boom. The 1980{2000 decline in young home ownership occurred as improvements in mortgage opportunities made it easier to...

This paper studies the choice between general and specific human capital. A trade-off arises because general human capital, while less productive, can easily be reallocated across firms. Accordingly, the fraction of individuals with specific human capital depends on the amount of uncertainty in...

A survey of the literature on optimal taxation both in infinitely-lived agent models and life-cycle economies suggests that no consensus emerges regarding the optimal tax rate on capital income. Although the tax rate is invariably zero in the long-run steady state of infinitely-lived agent...