Relative wage movements and the distribution of consumption

We analyze how relative wage movements across birth cohorts and education groups during the 1980s affected the distribution of household consumption. The analysis integrates the labor economics literature on time variation in the wage structure with the consumption insurance literature. In contrast to previous tests of consumption insurance, we examine the impact of systematic, publicly observable shifts in the hourly wage structure. To circumvent the extreme scarcity of longitudinal data with high quality information on both consumption and labor market outcomes, we draw upon the best available cross-sectional data sources to construct synthetic panel data on consumption, labor supply and wages. We find that low-frequency movements in the cohort-education structure of pre-tax hourly wages drove large changes in the distribution of household consumption. The results constitute a spectacular failure of the consumption insurance hypothesis, and one that is not explained by existing theories of informationally constrained optimal consumption allocations. We also develop a procedure for assessing the welfare consequences of deviations from full consumption insurance and, in particular, from the failure to insulate the consumption distribution from relative wage shifts across cohort-education groups. For a coefficient of relative risk aversion equal to two, fully insulating households from group-specific endowment variation would raise welfare by an amount equivalent to a uniform 2.7% consumption increase

Relative wage movements and the distribution of consumption

The authors analyze how relative wage movements among birth cohorts and education groups affected the distribution of household consumption and economic welfare. Their empirical work draws on the best available cross-sectional data sets to construct synthetic panel data on U.S. consumption, labor supply, and wages during the 1980s. The authors find that low-frequency movements in the cohort-education structure of pretax hourly wages among men drove large changes in the distribution of household consumption. The results constitute a spectacular failure of between-group consumption insurance, a failure not explained by existing theories of informationally constrained optimal consumption behavior

Burst diaphragm flow initiator Patent

Burst diaphragm flow initiator for installation in short duration wind tunnel

Short-duration, transonic flow, variable-porosity test section

Short-duration test facility obtains extremely high Reynolds number flows in subsonic, transonic, and supersonic speed ranges, and aids in solving Reynolds number-dependent aerodynamic and thermodynamic problems in design and testing of large, high speed vehicles. The modified blowdown wind tunnel avoids data confusion and aerodynamic noise

Surface and flow field measurements in a symmetric crossing shock wave/turbulent boundary-layer interaction

Results of an experimental investigation of a symmetric crossing shock/turbulent boundary layer interaction are presented for a Mach number of 3.44 and deflection angles of 2, 6, 8, and 9 degrees. The interaction strengths vary from weak to strong enough to cause a large region of separated flow. Measured quantities include surface static pressure (both steady and unsteady) and flowfield Pitot pressures. Pitot profiles in the plane of symmetry through the interaction region are shown for various deflection angles. Oil flow visualization and the results of a trace gas streamline tracking technique are also presented

Progress toward synergistic hypermixing nozzles

Mean flow measurements were obtained for air-to-air mixing downstream of swept and unswept ramp wall mounted hypermixing nozzle configurations. Aside from the sweep of the ramps, the two nozzle configurations studied are identical. The nozzles inject three parallel supersonic jets at a 15 deg angle (relative to the wind tunnel wall) into a supersonic freestream. Mach number and volume fraction distributions in a transverse plane 11.1 nozzle heights downstream from the nozzle exit plane were measured. Data are presented for a freestream Mach number of three at a matched static pressure condition and also at underexpanded static pressure condition (pressure ratio = 5). Surface oil flow visualization was used to study the near wall flow behavior. The results indicate that the swept ramp injectors produce stronger and larger vortex pairs than the unswept ramp injectors. The increased interaction between the swept ramp model's larger vortex pairs yields better mixing characteristics for this model