This paper characterises the dynamic behaviour of a growing economy where individuals `keep up with the Joneses` and face uninsurable labour income risk. Idiosyncratic uncertainty about future labour income reduces the marginal propensity to consume out of financial wealth and raises the effective rate of discount in the aggregate consumption Euler equation. The higher the average rate of income growth, the higher the saving rate. If individuals have uncertain lifetimes, a higher mortality rate reduces the marginal propensity to consume out of wealth, and raises the ratio of marginal utilities between employment and unemployment.
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Paper provided by University of Oxford, Department of Economics in its series Economics Series Working Papers with number
063.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
John Hassler & José V. Rodríguez Mora & Kjetil Storesletten & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 1998.
"Equilibrium Unemployment Insurance,"
Economics Working Papers
605, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Jun 1999.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
Hassler, J. & Mora, J.V.R. & Storesletten, K. & Zilibotti, F., 1999.
"Equilibrium Unemployment Insurance,"
Papers
665, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
Hassler, John & Mora, José & Storesletten, Kjetil & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 1999.
"Equilibrium Unemployment Insurance,"
Seminar Papers
665, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
[Downloadable!]