Quantitative effects of heterogeneity in dynamic macroeconomics

dc.contributor
Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Departament d'Economia i Empresa
dc.contributor.author
Maliar, Lilia
dc.date.accessioned
2011-04-12T17:27:16Z
dc.date.available
2011-03-15
dc.date.issued
1999-09-08
dc.date.submitted
2011-03-15
dc.identifier.isbn
978-84-694-3940-1
dc.identifier.uri
http://www.tdx.cat/TDX-0315111-143946
dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10803/7599
dc.description.abstract
The thesis studies quantitative implications of the real business cycle models with heterogeneous agents. The questions I ask are: First, Can the studied models not only replicate the aggregate time series facts but also the distributions of individual quantities such as consumption, hours worked, income, wealth observed in the micro data? Second, Does incorporating heterogeneity enhance the aggregate performance of the representative consumer models? To simplify the characterization of the equilibria in the models, I use results from aggregation theory. The thesis is composed of three chapters, each of which can be read independently. A l l chapters are joint with Serguei Maliar. The first chapter analyzes the predictions of a heterogeneous agents version of the model by Kydland and Prescott (1982). I calibrate and solve the model with eight heterogeneous agents to match the aggregate quantities and the distributions of productivity and wealth in the U.S. economy. I find that the model can generate the distributions of consumption and working hours which are consistent with patters observed in the data. I show that incorporating the heterogeneity helps to improve on the model's predictions with respect to labor markets. In particular, unlike a similar representative agent setup, the heterogeneous model can account for the Dunlop-Tarshis observation of weak correlation between productivity and hours worked. The second chapter constructs a heterogeneous agents version of the indivisible labor model by Hansen (1985) with search and home production. I calibrate and solve the model with five agents to replicate aggregate quantities and differences in productivity across agents in the U.S. economy. The model does reasonably well at reproducing cyclical behavior of the macroeconomic aggregates. At the individual level, it can account for the stylized facts that more productive individuals (i) enjoy a higher employment rate, (ii) have a lower volatility of employment, (iii) spend less time working at home. It is important to emphasize that none of the heterogeneous models with home production existing in the literature has been able to explain fact (ii). The third chapter studies distributive dynamics of wealth and income in a heterogeneous agents version of Kydland and Prescott's (1982) model. I show that imder the assumptions of complete markets and Cobb-Douglas preferences, the evolution of wealth and income distributions in the model can be described in terms of aggregate variables and time-invariant agent-specific parameters. This allows me to characterize explicitly the behavior of such inequality measvures as the coefficient of variation of wealth and income over the business cycle. I test the model's implications by using the time series on the U.K. economy. The predictions are in agreement with the data.
eng
dc.format.mimetype
application/pdf
dc.language.iso
eng
dc.publisher
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
dc.rights.license
ADVERTIMENT. L'accés als continguts d'aquesta tesi doctoral i la seva utilització ha de respectar els drets de la persona autora. Pot ser utilitzada per a consulta o estudi personal, així com en activitats o materials d'investigació i docència en els termes establerts a l'art. 32 del Text Refós de la Llei de Propietat Intel·lectual (RDL 1/1996). Per altres utilitzacions es requereix l'autorització prèvia i expressa de la persona autora. En qualsevol cas, en la utilització dels seus continguts caldrà indicar de forma clara el nom i cognoms de la persona autora i el títol de la tesi doctoral. No s'autoritza la seva reproducció o altres formes d'explotació efectuades amb finalitats de lucre ni la seva comunicació pública des d'un lloc aliè al servei TDX. Tampoc s'autoritza la presentació del seu contingut en una finestra o marc aliè a TDX (framing). Aquesta reserva de drets afecta tant als continguts de la tesi com als seus resums i índexs.
dc.source
TDX (Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa)
dc.subject
Macroeconomia
dc.title
Quantitative effects of heterogeneity in dynamic macroeconomics
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
dc.type
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
dc.subject.udc
33
cat
dc.contributor.director
Ravn, Morten O.
dc.rights.accessLevel
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
cat
dc.identifier.dl
B.13417-2011
dc.description.degree
Programa de doctorat en Economia, Finances i Empresa


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