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Consumption Smoothing and the Structure of Labor and Credit Markets

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Author Info
Winfried Koeniger
Giuseppe Bertola

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Abstract

When borrowing is limited by possible insolvency, a higher lower bound for future income affords earlier consumption and higher welfare. Limited opportunities for consumption smoothing also imply that prospects of upward income mobility have smaller beneficial effects for workers whose labor income is temporarily low. These simple theoretical insights are consistent with the empirically more pronounced tendency of poor would-borrowers to favor government redistribution in countries where consumer credit is relatively scarce. They also offer a rationale for observed patterns of institutional covariation. In countries where inefficient legal systems restrict borrowing opportunities, policies that reduce the dispersion and volatility of labor income alleviate credit constraints. Empirical support for this proposition offers more general insights as to ways in which historically determined features and politico-economic interactions may jointly shape institutional aspects of different markets, and as to appropriate design of reform processes

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Paper provided by Society for Economic Dynamics in its series 2004 Meeting Papers with number 263.

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Date of creation: 2004
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Handle: RePEc:red:sed004:263

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Keywords: liquidity constraints; redistribution;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution

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References listed on IDEAS
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  2. Bertola, Giuseppe & Rogerson, Richard, 1997. "Institutions and labor reallocation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1147-1171, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Varian, Hal R., 1980. "Redistributive taxation as social insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 49-68, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Flinn, Christopher J, 2002. "Labour Market Structure and Inequality: A Comparison of Italy and the U.S," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 69(3), pages 611-45, July.
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  6. Rodrik, Dani & Subramanian, Arvind & Trebbi, Francesco, 2002. "Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions Over Geography and Integration in Economic Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 3643, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Winfried Koeniger, 2004. "Labor Income Risk and Car Insurance in the UK," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Theory, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 55-74, 06. [Downloadable!]
  8. Luigi Guiso & Luigi Pistaferri & Fabiano Schivardi, 2002. "Insurance within the firm," 10th International Conference on Panel Data, Berlin, July 5-6, 2002 C3-1, International Conferences on Panel Data. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2001. "Preferences for Redistribution in the Land of Opportunities," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1936, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Daron Acemoglu & Robert Shimer, 1999. "Efficient Unemployment Insurance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(5), pages 893-928, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Christopher D Carroll, 1990. "Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis," Economics Working Paper Archive 371, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics, revised Aug 1996.
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  15. Agell, Jonas & Lommerud, Kjell Erik, 1992. "Union Egalitarianism as Income Insurance," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 59(235), pages 295-310, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1998. "Law and Finance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(6), pages 1113-1155, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Jappelli, Tullio & Pagano, Marco, 1994. "Saving, Growth, and Liquidity Constraints," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(1), pages 83-109, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, 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.)

  1. Charles Grant & Winfried Koeniger, 2005. "Redistributive Taxation and Personal Bankruptcy in US States," IZA Discussion Papers 1805, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  2. Giuseppe Bertola, 2004. "Creaking Labour Markets: Migrating into Unemployment?," CESifo Forum, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 5(3), pages 48-52, 09. [Downloadable!]
  3. B. Gabriela Mundaca & Jon Strand, 2004. "A Risk Allocation Approach to Optimal Exchange Rate Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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