This paper sets forth some key aggregate stochastic implications of the Modigliani-Brumberg (1980) life cycle hypothesis and explores the extent to which a properly aggregated life cycle model can help to explain the first and second moment properties of changes in per capita consumption. The principal finding of the paper is that smooth per capita consumption in the presence of permanent shocks to per capital labor income is exactly the outcome one should expect from a properly aggregated life cycle model in which saving for retirement, as well as for consumption smoothing, is a motive for asset accumulation. Copyright 1991, the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Volume (Year): 106 (1991) Issue (Month): 3 (August) Pages: 851-67 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Emilio Fernandez-Corugedo, 2004.
"Consumption Theory,"
Handbooks,
Centre for Central Banking Studies, Bank of England, number 23, December.
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