This article provides an axiomatic characterization of quasi-hyperbolic discounting and a more general class of semi-hyperbolic preferences. We impose consistency restrictions directly on the intertemporal trade-offs by relying on what we call ‘‘annuity compensations.’’ Our axiomatization leads naturally to an experimental design that disentangles discounting from the elasticity of intertempora...

This paper assesses the empirical performance of an intertemporal option pricing model with latent variables which generalizes the Black-Scholes and the stochastic volatility formulas. We derive a closed-form formula for an equilibrium model with recursive preferences where the fundamentals follow a Markov switching process. In a simulation experiment based on the model, we show that option pri...

This paper introduces …scal increasing returns, through endogenous labor income tax rates as in Schmitt-Grohe and Uribe (1997), into the overlapping generations model with endogenous labor, consumption in both periods of life and homothetic preferences (e.g., Lloyd-Braga, Nourry and Venditti, 2007). We show that under numerical calibrations of the parameters, local indeterminacy can occur for d...

Euler equation estimation of intertemporal consumption models requires many, often unverifiable assumptions. These include assumptions on expectations and preferences. We aim at reducing some of these requirements by using direct subjective information on respondents' preferences and expectations. The results suggest that individually measured welfare functions and expectations have predictive ...

We analyze sunspot-driven fluctuations in the standard 2-sector RBC model with moderate increasing returns to scale. We provide a detailed theoretical analysis enabling us to derive relevant bifurcation loci and to characterize the steady-state local stability properties as a function of various structural parameters. With GHH preferences, we show that local indeterminacy occurs through flip an...

Convenient assumptions about qualitative properties of the intertemporal utility function have generated counter-intuitive implications for the relationship between atemporal risk aversion and the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. If the intertemporal utility function is additively separable then the latter two concepts are the inverse of each other. We review a simple theoretical speci...

We analyze a monetary model with flexible labor supply, cash-inadvance constraints, and seigniorageand tax-financed government spending. If the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of labor is greater than one, both determinate and indeterminate steady states exist. If the elasticity is less than one, there is a unique steady state, which can be indeterminate. Only in the latter case do the...