财富偏好、习惯形成和消费与财富的波动率

本文构造了基于财富和习惯的消费—资产组合投资模型,其中代表性投资者的效用函数不但依赖于投资者的消费历史,还依赖于其财富水平。本文所提出的模型是对Merton(1971)、Bakshi和Chen(1996)、Sundaresan(1989)和Constantinides(1990)的消费—资产组合投资模型的推广。我们使用随机动态规划求解模型,并给出了最优的消费和组合投资规则。我们使用此模型计算了消费与财富的波动率,发现习惯形成和较弱的财富偏好均能导致更加平滑的消费行为,从而解释了消费平滑之谜。     

财富偏好、习惯形成和消费与财富的波动率

本构造了基于财富和习惯的消费一资产组合投资模型。其中代表性投资的效用函数不但依赖于投资的消费历史，还依赖于其财富水平。本所提出的模型是对Merton(1971)、Bakshi和Chen(1996)、Sundaresan(1989)和Constantinides(1990)的消费一资产组合投资模型的推广。我们使用随机动态规划求解模型。并给出了最优的消费和组合投资规则。我们使用此模型计算了消费与财富的波动率，发现习惯形成和较弱的财富偏好均能导致更加平滑的消费行为，从而解释了消费平滑之谜。     

有限理性下中美投资者对财富和消费偏好的比较研究

投资和消费是人们最重要的经济决策,而投资和消费的选择是由对财富和消费的偏好决定的。在效用最大化的前提下,构建有限理性的效用函数,来比较中国和美国投资者对于消费和财富的偏好。研究的结果表明,相对中国人而言美国人是更加偏好消费的,而中国人更偏重于财富。这样的差异形成的原因可能在于中国的金融市场发达程度不如美国,中国的社会保障体系不如美国完善。     

财富积累、习惯、偏好改变、不确定性与家庭消费决策

在本文中,我们建立了一个相当一般的分析家庭消费与储蓄跨期优化决策问题的理论框架。使用综合了家庭的当期消费、消费习惯、财富积累、偏好改变多种作用影响的效用函数,在家庭劳动收入具有不确定性的情况下,我们导出了家庭消费与储蓄跨期优化决策问题的闭式解,给出了家庭消费函数和欧拉方程的解析式。使用中国农村居民的住户调查数据对理论模型中导出的欧拉方程进行估计的结果表明,除了收入和家庭财富以外,消费习惯和预防性储蓄动机确实也都是影响我国农村居民家庭的消费与储蓄决策的重要因素。     

财富积累、习惯、偏好改变、不确定性与家庭消费决策

在本文中,我们建立了一个相当一般的分析家庭消费与储蓄跨期优化决策问题的理论框架。使用综合了家庭的当期消费、消费习惯、财富积累、偏好改变多种作用影响的效用函数,在家庭劳动收入具有不确定性的情况下,我们导出了家庭消费与储蓄跨期优化决策问题的闭式解,给出了家庭消费函数和欧拉方程的解析式。使用中国农村居民的住户调查数据对理论模型中导出的欧拉方程进行估计的结果表明,除了收入和家庭财富以外,消费习惯和预防性储蓄动机确实也都是影响我国农村居民家庭的消费与储蓄决策的重要因素。     

异质性财富偏好和资产定价

Bakshi和Chen(1996)在代表性投资者经济中提出了基于财富偏好的资产定价模型。本文研究了在异质性投资者经济中财富偏好对资产定价的影响。如果风险资产的价格服从几何布朗运动,那么资产市场具有两基金分离现象。本文首先证明了基于风险基金的资产定价模型,然后使用该模型证明了如果定价的基准是单个的投资者的最优消费和财富时,那么基于财富偏好的资产定价模型成立。但是,当定价的基准是总消费和总财富时,基于财富偏好的资产定价模型不能成立。也就是,不能在异质投资者经济中将Breeden(1979)的经典CCAPM模型推广到包含财富偏好的资产定价模型。     

异质性财富偏好和资产定价

Bakshi和Chen（1996）在代表性投资者经济中提出了基于财富偏好的资产定价模型。本文研究了在异质性投资者经济中财富偏好对资产定价的影响。如果风险资产的价格服从几何布朗运动，那么资产市场具有两基金分离现象。本文首先证明了基于风险基金的资产定价模型，然后使用该模型证明了如果定价的基准是单个的投资者的最优消费和财富时，那么基于财富偏好的资产定价模型成立。但是，当定价的基准是总消费和总财富时，基于财富偏好的资产定价模型不能成立。也就是，不能在异质投资者经济中将Breeden（1979）的经典CCAPM模型推广到包含财富偏好的资产定价模型。     

金融发展的福利收益和"门槛效应"--一个动态最优增长分析

文章采用无限期界的动态最优控制方法,给出一个最优经济增长模型,讨论金融发展对消费福利的影响。结论显示,金融发展通过提升要素生产率和金融效率产生消费与财富上的“增长率收益”,但金融效率提升和金融发展成本也降低消费-财富比,引起短期消费的下跳。因此,金融发展促进福利收益,但存在“门槛效应”。门槛高度取决于现有技术水平(要素生产率)、居民消费的时间偏好、人口增长率等。这些方面的差异导致各国在通过金融发展促进福利增长上后果不一。这对一国选择金融发展政策具有指导作用。     

消费跨期替代中的财富传承偏好——理论模型与中国的证据

本文通过在经典消费跨期替代模型中引入财富代际传承因素,构建了适合我国居民家庭精神的中国式消费跨期替代选择模型,以我国1978—2008年的相关年度数据为样本,利用广义矩估计方法(GMM)分别对全国、城镇和农村居民的家庭财富传承偏好进行了估计,并对我国居民的消费选择行为进行了实证分析,分析结果表明:除农村居民外,中国式消费跨期替代模型能够得到实践的证实,城乡居民消费行为的选择存在明显的差别。最后,依据分析结论提出了相应的政策建议。     

房地产价格、财富与居民消费效应——来自中国省际面板数据的证据

通过构建一个包含习惯形成(habit formation)的消费函数,并将财富划分为房地产财富和非房地产财富,利用我国2003—2010年省际面板数据,运用工具变量法考察了房地产财富的短期和长期消费效应。实证表明:我国房地产财富的总体短期消费效应为0.11,长期消费效应则为0.29,消费的习惯形成系数则为-0.97;但从地区效应来看,房价较高的省市并未体现出较高的消费效应。     

Relative consumption, relative wealth and growth

In a growth model where individuals care about their social status measured both by consumption and wealth comparisons, we show that status comparison in wealth heightens economic growth, while status comparison in consumption may affect negatively economic growth.     

Wealth inequality, preference heterogeneity and macroeconomic volatility in two-sector economies

We explore the link between wealth inequality, preference heterogeneity and macroeconomic volatility in a two-sector neoclassical growth model. First we prove that, if agents have homogeneous preferences, when the absolute risk tolerance is a strictly convex (concave) function, sufficiently high (low) levels of wealth inequality may lead to endogenous fluctuations in the neighborhood of the steady state. Second, we consider the effects of preference heterogeneity when agents are homogeneous with respect to their wealth. We show that when the utility function belongs to the HARA class, sufficiently high levels of preference heterogeneity may lead to endogenous fluctuations in the neighborhood of the steady state if the elasticity of intertemporal substitution in consumption is greater than one.     

Why do people drink? Tests of the rational addiction model

The rational addiction (RA) model applied to alcoho consumption is tested using 1983 US Health Interview Survey data. The RA model yields refutable hypotheses concerning effects of current, past, and future prices, past and future consumption, time preference and marginal utility of wealth on addictive good consumption. The estimations provide relatively strong support for the RA model. Past and present consumption had strong positive relationship with current consumption. Coefficients on past, present, and future money prices and fines for first oflence drunk driving (as a form of price for alcohol consumption) were significant and of the predical sign.     

Status Preference, Wealth and Dynamics in the Open Economy

Abstract. The implications of status preference in a simple open economy model are investigated in this paper. The open economy is modeled as a continuum of identical representative agents who have preferences over consumption and status. In the paper status is identified as relative wealth, which takes the form of relative holdings international financial assets. A symmetric macroeconomic equilibrium is derived in which status is the source of transitional dynamics for domestic consumption and the current account balance. This result illustrates another way to combine transitional dynamics with interior equilibria in the small open economy Ramsey model with perfect capital mobility. We also show that status preference plays a critical role in influencing the open economy's adjustment to government expenditure and world interest rate shocks.     

Endogenous fiscal policies,environmental quality,and status-seeking behavior

This paper analyzes endogenous fiscal policy in an endogenous growth model where agents care about social status and environmental quality. The quest for a higher status is assimilated to a preference for capital wealth. The government uses income tax to finance infrastructure and environmental protection. We find that accounting for preferences for social status and environmental quality may lead to an allocation of tax revenue in favor of a cleanup effort to the detriment of infrastructure. Economic growth is not necessarily and negatively affected by this allocation as it is partly explained by an excessive accumulation of capital wealth due to the quest of status. Status seeking can however harm economic growth and environmental quality when its motive is important enough. Finally, we show that economic growth may be consistent with environmental preservation but is not necessarily welfare-improving as in the case of absence of status-seeking behavior.     

Informal Institutions, Consumption Custom, and Assumption of OLG Model—A Theoretical Analysis on Households’ Consumption Decisions in the Oriental Culture and Belief

Orthodox consumption theories have not incorporated the overlapping-generations (OLG) model and wealth-stock model, whereas this article explains households’ characters in consumption and savings in countries such as China and some other regions from the viewpoints of social convention, moral formation, ethics, and other informal institutions. The authors exploit and extend the OLG model, introduce the concepts of bequest, gift, and wealth preference to the economic agent’s utility function, then apply optimal conditions to analyzing the characters and problems concerning consumption and savings behavior. Furthermore, they deliberate on the effects of this analysis on government macroeconomic policies and suggest some relevant theoretical thinking and solutions. Translated from Economic Research Journal, 2005, 4 (in Chinese)     

Bequests, Inter Vivos Transfers, and Wealth Distribution

This paper constructs a heterogeneous agent overlapping generations model with bequests and inter vivos transfers. In the model, households in the same family line behave strategically to determine their consumption, working hours, gifts, and savings. Calibrating the model to the U.S. economy, the paper measures time preference and parental altruism consistent with the economy's capital-output ratio and the size of intergenerational transfers. The model with intergenerational transfers better explains, although not fully, the wealth distribution of the United States. The paper also analyzes the effects of government policy changes on wealth accumulation, distribution, and social welfare. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: D31, D64, D91, H31.     

SOCIAL STATUS,EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN A TWO‐SECTOR MODEL OF ENDOGENOUS GROWTH*

This paper extends the relative wealth specification of status preference to the two‐sector Uzawa (1965 )– Lucas (1988 ) model and examines the effectiveness of government spending on economic growth. It is found that the desire for relative wealth‐induced social status and/or the education component of relative wealth‐induced social status are important ingredients in determining the growth rate effects of government spending. Provided that the agent is concerned with his or her relative social position, the education‐induced social status plays a more important role than the physical‐asset‐induced social status in determining the validity of public spending on growth. If individuals do not care about their education‐driven social rewards, then an increase in government spending has no effect on the balanced growth rate regardless of the presence of the physical‐asset‐induced social status. A rise in government spending reduces the long‐run growth rate if the education‐induced social status is present.     

Consumption taxation, social status and indeterminacy in models of endogenous growth with elastic labor supply

In this paper, we examine the effects of consumption taxation on long-run growth in an infinitely lived representative-agent model of endogenous growth with endogenous labor supply in which the desire for social status induces private agents to care about others’ wealth or consumption levels. This analysis shows that the increase in consumption taxation raises (reduces) the long-run growth rate when the equilibrium path is locally indeterminate (determinate), provided the desire for social status is not too strong in the relative wealth model. By contrast, in the consumption externalities model, the same result holds, if the Frisch labor supply and labor demand curves have the ‘normal’ slopes at their intersection point, while the result is reversed if these two curves have the ‘wrong’ slopes.