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Consumption Commitments and Employment Contracts

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Postlewaite

    (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)

  • Larry Samuelson

    (Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

  • Dan Silverman

    (Department of Economics, University of Michigan)

Abstract

We examine an economy in which the cost of consuming some goods can be reduced by making commitments that reduce flexibility. We show that such consumption commitments can induce consumers with risk-neutral underlying utility functions to be risk averse over small variations in income, but sometimes to seek risk over large variations. As a result, optimal employment contracts will smooth wages conditional on being employed, but may incorporate a possibility of unemployment.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Postlewaite & Larry Samuelson & Dan Silverman, 2001. "Consumption Commitments and Employment Contracts," PIER Working Paper Archive 06-002, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 14 Jan 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:pen:papers:06-002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    2. Gelman, Michael & Kariv, Shachar & Shapiro, Matthew D. & Silverman, Dan & Tadelis, Steven, 2020. "How individuals respond to a liquidity shock: Evidence from the 2013 government shutdown," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. David Weiss & Cezar Santos, 2011. "Why Not Settle Down Already? A Quantitative Question," 2011 Meeting Papers 921, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Javier López Segovia, 2023. "Consumption Commitments and Unemployment Insurance," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_458, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    5. Chen Hua & Mahani Reza S., 2012. "Optimal Demand for Insurance with Consumption Commitments," Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, June.
    6. Douglas W. Blackburn & Andrey D. Ukhov, 2013. "Individual vs. Aggregate Preferences: The Case of a Small Fish in a Big Pond," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(2), pages 470-484, August.
    7. Schroyen, Fred, 2011. "Attitudes towards income risk in the presence of quantity constraints," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 7/2011, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    8. Antoine Bonleu & Bruno Decreuse & Tanguy van Ypersele, 2019. "Job protection, housing market regulation, and the youth," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(6), pages 1017-1036, December.
    9. Rotemberg, Julio J., 2008. "Minimally altruistic wages and unemployment in a matching model with monopsony," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(Supplemen), pages 97-110, October.
    10. Drewianka, Scott, 2008. "Constrained labor supply and risk-aversion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 101(2), pages 130-133, November.
    11. University of Iowa & Galina Vereshchagina, 2007. "Preferences for risk in a dynamic model with consumption commitments," 2007 Meeting Papers 567, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Nie, Pu-yan & Wang, Chan & Yang, Yong-cong, 2019. "Vertical integration maintenance commitments," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 11-16.
    13. Jianbo Jeff Luo, 2022. "Is Happiness Adaptation to Poverty Limited? The Role of Reference Income," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2491-2516, August.
    14. Sommer, Kamila, 2016. "Fertility choice in a life cycle model with idiosyncratic uninsurable earnings risk," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 27-38.
    15. Minsu Chang, 2024. "Changing Marital Transitions and Homeownership Among Young Households," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 52, pages 46-63, April.
    16. Luigi Guiso, 2014. "Risk Aversion and Financial Crisis," EIEF Working Papers Series 1412, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Dec 2014.
    17. Decreuse, Bruno & van Ypersele, Tanguy, 2011. "Housing market regulation and the social demand for job protection," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1397-1409.
    18. Davidoff, Thomas, 2010. "Home equity commitment and long-term care insurance demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 44-49, February.
    19. SCHROYEN, Fred, 2011. "Attitudes towards income risk in the presence of quantity constraints," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2011020, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    20. Majchrowska Aleksandra & Broniatowska Paulina, 2018. "The workforce’s age structure and wages—Do age and the type of occupation matter?," Lodz Economics Working Papers 8/2018, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology.
    21. Minsu Chang, 2019. "A House Without a Ring: The Role of Changing Marital Transitions for Housing Decisions," 2019 Meeting Papers 514, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    22. Vicky Henderson & David Hobson, 2013. "Risk Aversion, Indivisible Timing Options, and Gambling," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 126-137, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unemployment; consumption commitments; optimal contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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