Pashardes (1991) and Banks, Blundell and Preston (1994) use parametric methods to estimate lifetime equivalence scales. Their approaches put parametric restrictions on the differences in within-period expenditure needs across household types, the intertemporal allocation of expenditure, and the shapes of commodity demand equations. This paper puts parametric structure only on the differences in...

We consider the class of valuations on indivisible items called gross-substitute (GS). This class was introduced by Kelso and Crawford (1982) and is widely used in studies of markets with indivisibilities. GS is a condition on the demand-flow in a specific scenario: some items become more expensive while other items retain their price. We prove that GS implies a much stronger condition, describ...

This paper investigates empirically why Japan’s household savings rate fell in the 1990s. We constructed an economic model consisting of two types of household: unconstrained life-cycle households and liquidity-constrained households. Unconstrained households generally save, but liquidity-constrained households consume all of their disposable income. We found that the proportion of liquidity-co...

In contrast to empirical evidence, standard theories conclude that transaction costs only have a second order effect on liquidity premia. In this paper, we show that if one incorporates the well-established fact that market volatility during trading periods is significantly higher than during nontrading periods, then transaction costs have a first order effect that is much greater than that fou...

Multiple attribute search is a central feature of economic life: we consider much more than price when purchasing a home, and more than wage when choosing a job. Nevertheless, while single attribute search problems have been studied extensively, little is known about optimal search in multiple attribute environments. I introduce a partial characterization of optimal sequential search in a probl...

There is well-established evidence that decision makers consistently fail to consider all available options. Instead, they restrict attention to only a subset of alternatives and then undertake a more detailed analysis of this reduced set. This systematic lack of consideration of available options can lead to a “more is less” effect, where excess of options can be welfare-reducing for a decisio...

In order to address the question whether Hayek might have been an Agent-based Computational Economist (ACE) avant-la-lettre, we consider an ACE model concerning the phenomenon of information contagion. Alongside increasing returns, network externalities, and information cascades, information contagion has been presented in the literature as an explanation for particular patterns of macrobehavio...

Constantinides (1986) finds that transaction cost has only a second order effect on liquidity premia. In this paper, we show that simply incorporating the well-established time-varying return dynamics across trading and nontrading periods generates a first order effect that is much greater than that found by the existing literature and comparable to empirical evidence. Surprisingly, the higher ...

In his seminal work, Constantinides (1986) finds that transaction cost has only a second order effect on liquidity premia. In this paper, we show that incorporating the well-established time-varying return dynamics across trading and nontrading periods can produce a first order effect that is much greater than that found by the existing literature and comparable to empirical evidence. Surprisin...

When consumers are not fully cognizant of the value of a good, they use their experience to estimate its value. Their past experience is selective if it only contains transactions that were carried out but not potential transactions that were not implemented. Failing to account for this selectivity may result in biased estimates of the post-purchase value. This paper presents a bounded rational...