IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/mateco/v85y2019icp17-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The invariant distribution of wealth and employment status in a small open economy with precautionary savings

Author

Listed:
  • Bayer, Christian
  • Rendall, Alan D.
  • Wälde, Klaus

Abstract

We study optimal savings in continuous time with exogenous transitions between employment and unemployment as the only source of uncertainty in a small open economy. We prove the existence of an optimal consumption path. We exploit that the dynamics of consumption and wealth between jumps can be expressed as a Fuchsian system. We derive conditions under which an invariant joint distribution for the state variables , i.e., wealth and labour market status, exists and is unique. We also provide conditions under which the distribution of these variables converges to the invariant distribution. Our analysis relies on the notion of T-processes and applies results on the stability of Markovian processes from Meyn and Tweedie (1993a, b,c).

Suggested Citation

  • Bayer, Christian & Rendall, Alan D. & Wälde, Klaus, 2019. "The invariant distribution of wealth and employment status in a small open economy with precautionary savings," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 17-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:mateco:v:85:y:2019:i:c:p:17-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2019.08.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304406819300904
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jmateco.2019.08.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kamihigashi, Takashi & Stachurski, John, 2012. "An order-theoretic mixing condition for monotone Markov chains," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 262-267.
    2. Sennewald, Ken, 2007. "Controlled stochastic differential equations under Poisson uncertainty and with unbounded utility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 1106-1131, April.
    3. Yves Achdou & Jiequn Han & Jean-Michel Lasry & Pierre-Louis Lions & Benjamin Moll, 2017. "Income and Wealth Distribution in Macroeconomics: A Continuous-Time Approach," NBER Working Papers 23732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2016. "The Distribution Of Wealth In The Blanchard–Yaari Model," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 466-481, March.
    5. Chen, Xiaohong & Hansen, Lars Peter & Carrasco, Marine, 2010. "Nonlinearity and temporal dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 155(2), pages 155-169, April.
    6. Daniel Barczyk & Matthias Kredler, 2014. "Altruistically motivated transfers under uncertainty," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 5(3), pages 705-749, November.
    7. Gary Chamberlain & Charles A. Wilson, 2000. "Optimal Intertemporal Consumption Under Uncertainty," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(3), pages 365-395, July.
    8. Greg Kaplan & Benjamin Moll & Giovanni L. Violante, 2018. "Monetary Policy According to HANK," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(3), pages 697-743, March.
    9. Lars Peter Hansen & José A. Scheinkman, 2009. "Long-Term Risk: An Operator Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(1), pages 177-234, January.
    10. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    11. Shuhei Aoki & Makoto Nirei, 2017. "Zipf's Law, Pareto's Law, and the Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 36-71, July.
    12. Galo Nuno & Benjamin Moll, 2018. "Social Optima in Economies with Heterogeneous Agents," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 28, pages 150-180, April.
    13. Christian Bayer & Klaus Wälde, 2010. "Matching and Saving in Continuous Time: Theory," Working Papers 1004, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 13 Jan 2010.
    14. Khieu, Hoang & Wälde, Klaus, 2023. "Capital income risk and the dynamics of the wealth distribution," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    15. SeHyoun Ahn & Greg Kaplan & Benjamin Moll & Thomas Winberry & Christian Wolf, 2018. "When Inequality Matters for Macro and Macro Matters for Inequality," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32(1), pages 1-75.
    16. Godfrey Keller & Sven Rady & Martin Cripps, 2005. "Strategic Experimentation with Exponential Bandits," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(1), pages 39-68, January.
    17. Walde, Klaus, 1999. "Optimal Saving under Poisson Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 194-217, July.
    18. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2009. "Quantitative Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Households," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 319-354, May.
    19. Aoki, Shuhei & Nirei, Makoto, 2013. "Pareto Distributions and the Evolution of Top Incomes in the U.S," MPRA Paper 47967, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bandi, Federico M. & Nguyen, Thong H., 2003. "On the functional estimation of jump-diffusion models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1-2), pages 293-328.
    21. Brock, William A & Magill, Michael J P, 1979. "Dynamics under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 843-868, July.
    22. Huggett, Mark, 1993. "The risk-free rate in heterogeneous-agent incomplete-insurance economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(5-6), pages 953-969.
    23. Scheinkman, Jose A & Weiss, Laurence, 1986. "Borrowing Constraints and Aggregate Economic Activity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(1), pages 23-45, January.
    24. , & ,, 2014. "Stochastic stability in monotone economies," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(2), May.
    25. Fwu-Ranq Chang & A. G. Malliaris, 2005. "Asymptotic Growth under Uncertainty: Existence and Uniqueness," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Economic Uncertainty, Instabilities And Asset Bubbles Selected Essays, chapter 1, pages 3-8, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    26. Roberto Raimondo, 2005. "Market clearing, utility functions, and securities prices," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 25(2), pages 265-285, February.
    27. Jeremy Lise, 2013. "On-the-Job Search and Precautionary Savings," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(3), pages 1086-1113.
    28. Christian BAYER & Klaus WALDE, 2010. "Matching and Saving in Continuous Time: Proofs," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2010014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    29. Huggett, Mark & Ospina, Sandra, 2001. "Aggregate precautionary savings: when is the third derivative irrelevant?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 373-396, October.
    30. Lehrer, Ehud & Light, Bar, 2018. "The effect of interest rates on consumption in an income fluctuation problem," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 63-71.
    31. Dan Cao & Wenlan Luo, 2017. "Persistent Heterogeneous Returns and Top End Wealth Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 301-326, October.
    32. Magill, Michael J. P., 1977. "A local analysis of N-sector capital accumulation under uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 211-219, June.
    33. Lippi, Francesco & Ragni, Stefania & Trachter, Nicholas, 2015. "Optimal monetary policy with heterogeneous money holdings," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 339-368.
    34. Hopenhayn, Hugo A & Prescott, Edward C, 1992. "Stochastic Monotonicity and Stationary Distributions for Dynamic Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(6), pages 1387-1406, November.
    35. Robert C. Merton, 1975. "An Asymptotic Theory of Growth Under Uncertainty," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 42(3), pages 375-393.
    36. Hayne E. Leland, 1968. "Saving and Uncertainty: The Precautionary Demand for Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(3), pages 465-473.
    37. Shuhei Aoki & Makoto Nirei, 2016. "Pareto Distribution of Income in Neoclassical Growth Models," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 20, pages 25-42, April.
    38. Robert M. Anderson & Roberto C. Raimondo, 2008. "Equilibrium in Continuous-Time Financial Markets: Endogenously Dynamically Complete Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(4), pages 841-907, July.
    39. Wang, Neng, 2007. "An equilibrium model of wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1882-1904, October.
    40. Bismut, Jean-Michel, 1975. "Growth and optimal intertemporal allocation of risks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 239-257, April.
    41. Christian BAYER & Klaus WALDE, 2010. "Matching and Saving in Continuous Time: Proofs," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2010014, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Khieu, Hoang & Wälde, Klaus, 2023. "Capital income risk and the dynamics of the wealth distribution," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. Donsimoni Jean Roch & Wälde Klaus & Glawion René & Plachter Bodo, 2020. "Projecting the spread of COVID-19 for Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 181-216, June.
    3. Matthias Birkner & Niklas Scheuer & Klaus Wälde, 2023. "The dynamics of Pareto distributed wealth in a small open economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(2), pages 607-644, August.
    4. Yves Achdou & Jiequn Han & Jean-Michel Lasry & Pierre-Louis Lionse & Benjamin Moll, 2022. "Income and Wealth Distribution in Macroeconomics: A Continuous-Time Approach [On the Existence and Uniqueness of Stationary Equilibrium in Bewley Economies with Production]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 45-86.
    5. Nguyen, Hien Phuc & Khieu, Hoang, 2021. "Progressive wealth tax: An inquiry into Biden’s tax policy," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 735-742.
    6. Achdou, Yves & Han, Jiequn & Lasry, Jean Michel & Lions, Pierre Louis & Moll, Ben, 2022. "Income and wealth distribution in macroeconomics: a continuous-time approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107422, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khieu, Hoang & Wälde, Klaus, 2023. "Capital income risk and the dynamics of the wealth distribution," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. Matthias Birkner & Niklas Scheuer & Klaus Wälde, 2023. "The dynamics of Pareto distributed wealth in a small open economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(2), pages 607-644, August.
    3. Yves Achdou & Jiequn Han & Jean-Michel Lasry & Pierre-Louis Lions & Benjamin Moll, 2017. "Income and Wealth Distribution in Macroeconomics: A Continuous-Time Approach," NBER Working Papers 23732, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Christian Bayer & Klaus Waelde, 2011. "Existence, Uniqueness and Stability of Invariant Distributions in Continuous-Time Stochastic Models," Working Papers 1111, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, revised 21 Jul 2011.
    5. Toda, Alexis Akira, 2019. "Wealth distribution with random discount factors," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 101-113.
    6. Stachurski, John & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2019. "An impossibility theorem for wealth in heterogeneous-agent models with limited heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 1-24.
    7. Thomas J. Sargent & John Stachurski, 2024. "Dynamic Programming: Finite States," Papers 2401.10473, arXiv.org.
    8. Juan Carlos Parra-Alvarez & Olaf Posch & Mu-Chun Wang, 2017. "Estimation of Heterogeneous Agent Models: A Likelihood Approach," CESifo Working Paper Series 6717, CESifo.
    9. Bar Light, 2020. "Uniqueness of equilibrium in a Bewley–Aiyagari model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 435-450, March.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Marcet, Albert & Obiols-Homs, Francesc & Weil, Philippe, 2007. "Incomplete markets, labor supply and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2621-2635, November.
    12. Rocheteau, Guillaume & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Wong, Russell, 2018. "A tractable model of monetary exchange with ex-post heterogeneity," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), September.
    13. Hu, Tai-Wei & Shmaya, Eran, 2019. "Unique monetary equilibrium with inflation in a stationary Bewley–Aiyagari model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 368-382.
    14. Gouin-Bonenfant, Emilien & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2018. "Pareto Extrapolation: Bridging Theoretical and Quantitative Models of Wealth Inequality," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt90n2h2bb, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    15. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Ma, Qingyin & Stachurski, John & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2020. "The income fluctuation problem and the evolution of wealth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    19. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2015. "The wealth distribution in Bewley economies with capital income risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 489-515.
    22. Joachim Hubmer & Per Krusell & Anthony A. Smith Jr., 2020. "Sources of US Wealth Inequality: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2020, volume 35, pages 391-455, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Saki Bigio & Yuliy Sannikov, 2019. "A Model of Intermediation, Money, Interest, and Prices," Working Papers 150, Peruvian Economic Association.
    24. Donsimoni Jean Roch & Wälde Klaus & Glawion René & Plachter Bodo, 2020. "Projecting the spread of COVID-19 for Germany," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 181-216, June.
    25. Jesús Fernández‐Villaverde & Samuel Hurtado & Galo Nuño, 2023. "Financial Frictions and the Wealth Distribution," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 869-901, May.
    26. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Thomas M. Eisenbach & Yuliy Sannikov, 2012. "Macroeconomics with Financial Frictions: A Survey," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000384, David K. Levine.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Uncertainty in continuous time; Counting process; Existence; Uniqueness; Stability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:mateco:v:85:y:2019:i:c:p:17-37. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc 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 RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jmateco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.