Journal of Economic Theory and Econometrics: Journal of the Korean Econometric Society
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Journal of Economic Theory and Econometrics
JETEM/계량경제학보/計量經濟學報/JKES
Journal of the Korean Econometric Society

Elasticity of Substitution and the Lifecycle Model: A Simple Example

Vol.21, No.4, December , 1–19


English Version |  Korean Version
  •   (Department of Economics, University of Seoul)

  •   (National Pension Research Institute)

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Abstract  

In the standard lifecycle model, consumption grows at a constant rate during the lifetime of an individual or household. The empirical study, however, shows that income and consumption moves together and have hump-shaped paths during the life of an individual or household. In explaining this comovement and humpshapedness, two approaches are prominent. One is to introduce the uncertain income. The other is to introduce the hump-shaped labor productivity. This paper follows the latter approach. We show that, in this approach, the sizes of two elasticities of substitution (the intertemporal elasticity of substititution and the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure) are important. We show that the smaller is the intertemporal elasticity of substitution and the larger the elasticity of substitution between consumption and leisure, the more hump-shaped and co-moving are the income and the consumption.


Keywords
   The co-movement of income and consumption, Hump-shapedness, Intertemporal

JEL classification codes
   E21
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