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Publication Bias in Measuring Intertemporal Substitution

Abstract

I examine 2,735 estimates of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption (EIS) reported in 169 published studies. The literature shows strong publication bias: researchers report negative and insignificant estimates less often than they should, which pulls the mean estimate up by about 0.5. When I correct the mean for the bias, for macro estimates I get zero, even though the reported t - statistics are on average two. The corrected mean of micro estimates for asset holders is around 0.3–0.4. Calibrations of the EIS greater than 0.8 are inconsistent with the bulk of the empirical evidence.

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Paper provided by Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies in its series Working Papers IES with number 2013/15.

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Length: 26pages
Date of creation: Oct 2013
Date of revision: Oct 2013
Handle: RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2013_15
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Keywords: Elasticity of intertemporal substitution; consumption; publication bias; meta-analysis;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

  • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
  • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods

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  1. Meta-analysis of the elasticity of intertemporal substitution
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2013-12-11 14:22:00
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Cited by:

  1. John Creedy & Norman Gemmell & Grant Scobie, 2014. "Pensions, Savings and Housing: A Life-cycle Framework with Policy Simulations," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/14, New Zealand Treasury.
  2. Tomas Havranek & Roman Horvath & Zuzana Irsova & Marek Rusnak, 2013. "Cross-Country Heterogeneity in Intertemporal Substitution," Working Papers IES 2013/11, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Aug 2013.
  3. Frédéric Branger & Philippe Quirion, 2013. "Would Border Carbon Adjustments prevent carbon leakage and heavy industry competitiveness losses? Insights from a meta-analysis of recent economic studies," CIRED Working Papers halshs-00870689, HAL.
  4. Dominika Reckova & Zuzana Irsova, 2015. "Publication Bias in Measuring Anthropogenic Climate Change," Energy & Environment, , vol. 26(5), pages 853-862, September.
  5. Adrien Auclert, 2015. "Monetary Policy and the Redistribution Channel," 2015 Meeting Papers 381, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  6. Dominika Reckova & Zuzana Irsova, 2015. "Publication Bias in Measuring Climate Sensitivity," Working Papers IES 2015/14, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised May 2015.

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