Uncertainty, Irreversibility, Durable Consumption and the Great Depression
Abstract
What was the role of uncertainty in the Great Depression? This paper uses a calibrated general equilibrium model to show that, in response to an increase in uncertainty, agents "increase" expenditure on irreversible durable goods and reduce investment in irreversible physical capital. These relative movements occur because durable goods provide a store of utility and are less irreversible than physical capital. These substitutions are unclear at the start of the Great Depression but are clearly visible at the deep end of it in 1932, when the volatility of stock returns is consistently high. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2008.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by London School of Economics and Political Science in its journal Economica.
Volume (Year): 76 (2009)
Issue (Month): 303 (07)
Pages: 574-587
Contact details of provider:
Postal: Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE
Phone: +44 (020) 7405 7686
Web page: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0013-0427
More information through EDIRC
Order Information:
Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0013-0427
Related research
Keywords:References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:76:y:2009:i:303:p:574-587For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

