Fearing the Worst: The Importance of Uncertainty for Inequality
We present an overlapping generations model in which aspirationalagents face uncertainty about the returns to human capital. Investment in human capital requires external funding, implying a probability of bankruptcy that is greater the lower the human capital endowment of an agent. We show that agents with sufficiently low human capital endowments may experience such a strong influence of loss aversion that they abstain from human capital investment. We further show how this behaviour may be transmitted through successive generations to cause initial inequalities to persist. These results do not rely on any capital market imperfections.
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| Length: | 30 pages |
| Date of creation: | 2013 |
| Date of revision: | |
| Handle: | RePEc:man:cgbcrp:182 |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: Manchester M13 9PL Phone: (0)161 275 4868 Fax: (0)161 275 4812 Web page: http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/economics/our-research/centre-for-growth-and-business-cycle-research/ More information through EDIRC
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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.:
- Rosenblatt-Wisch, Rina, 2008.
"Loss aversion in aggregate macroeconomic time series,"
European Economic Review,
Elsevier, vol. 52(7), pages 1140-1159, October.
- Rina Rosenblatt-Wisch, 2007. "Loss Aversion in Aggregate Macroeconomic Time Series," Working Papers 2007-06, Swiss National Bank.
- Reto FOELLMI & Rina ROSENBLATT-WISCH & Klaus REINER SCHENK-HOPPE, .
"Consumption Paths under Prospect Utility in an Optimal Growth Model,"
Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series
10-38, Swiss Finance Institute.
- Foellmi, Reto & Rosenblatt-Wisch, Rina & Schenk-Hoppé, Klaus Reiner, 2011. "Consumption paths under prospect utility in an optimal growth model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 273-281, March.
- Reto Foellmi & Rina Rosenblatt-Wisch & Klaus Reiner Schenk-Hoppé, 2010. "Consumption Paths under Prospect Utility in an Optimal Growth Model," Diskussionsschriften dp1010, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
- S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994.
"Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving,"
The Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Oxford University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
- S. Rao Aiyagari, 1993. "Uninsured idiosyncratic risk and aggregate saving," Working Papers 502, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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