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Journal of Economic Literature Vol. 48 No. 3 2010

Consumption and Saving: Models of Intertemporal Allocation and Their Implications for Public Policy

Orazio Attanasio1; Guglielmo Weber2

1 UCL, IFS, NBER, and CEPR. · 2 Università di Padova, IFS, and CEPR.

open access

Abstract

This paper provides a critical survey of the large literature on the life cycle model of consumption, both from an empirical and a theoretical point of view. It discusses several approaches that have been taken in the literature to bring the model to the data, their empirical successes, and their failures. Finally, the paper reviews a number of changes to the standard life cycle model that could help solve the remaining empirical puzzles.

DOI
10.1257/jel.48.3.693
Volume
48
Issue
3
Pages
693-751
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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