The Markov Consumption Problem

The paper derives the solution to a simple stochastic continuous-time dynamic control problem in which a consumer determines consumption and saving while moving between employment and unemployment according to a Markov process. The results differ from the permanent income hypothesis and some of Hall's 1978 results based on autoregressive income shocks.

Income Tax Incidence with Positive Population Growth

This paper develops a model of safety first consumption behavior in which the likelihood of survival to the next period depends on current consumption levels. Below a threshold asset level, individuals follow a decumulation path, and above that level they follow an accumulation path. Saving rates then vary discontinuously with asset level, generating a poverty trap and divergence in incomes. Reduction of risk raises saving rates. A more equitable distribution of assets can be consistent with greater aggregate savings and growth because of declining marginal propensity to save over some asset intervals.

Price Dispersion and Short Run Equilibrium in a Queuing Model

Price dispersion is analyzed in the context of a queuing market where customers enter queues to acquire a good or service and may experience delays. With menu costs, price dispersion arises and can persist in the medium and long run. The queuing market rations goods in the same way whether firm prices are optimal or not. Price dispersion reduces the rate at which customers get the good and reduces customer welfare.

Price Dynamics and the Market for Access to Trading Partners

At each point in time, price dynamics in a market are determined by a market for access to trading partners, implemented by competitive profit-maximizing brokers. This mechanism is applied to a market in which the value of a good declines over time and buyers decide optimally when to reenter the market and buy a new unit. Price adjustment paths in response to increases and decreases in demand are then derived using the differential equations generated by the model.

A Search Version of the Roy Model

This paper considers the decisions of workers to search in different labor markets, in analogy to Roy¡¯s model of sectoral selection. In the basic model, a worker can search in one labor market or another but not both. With non-pecuniary benefits, a worker chooses the labor market offering the highest reservation utility level. Conditions for simultaneous search in two markets are also derived under the assumption that workers suffer a reduction in wage offers. Decisions of where to search are relevant to self-selection into sectors and self-selection biases, the formation of interview networks, and generation of overlapping markets.

A Kaldor Matching Model of Real Wage Declines

A model linking macroeconomic phenomena and income distribution in balanced growth equilibria is developed as a variant to the Kaldor model of factor shares. It departs from the original Kaldor model in assuming equal savings rates and production determined by a matching process between workers and jobs. Macroeconomic equilibrium (national savings equal to investment) determines the ratio of jobs to employment and the ratio of unemployed to vacancies. Competitive microeconomic behavior then determines the wage and interest rates. Changes in the ratio of national debt to employment have real effects on factor prices. Implications for effects of taxes and unemployment benefits are derived. The model explains recent declines in real wages relative to productivity.Kaldor, Real Wage, Interest Rate, National Debt, Unemployment Benefits, Efficient Taxation, Matching, Factor Prices

The Markov Consumption Problem

This paper develops a model of safety first consumption behavior in which the likelihood of survival to the next period depends on current consumption levels. Below a threshold asset level, individuals follow a decumulation path, and above that level they follow an accumulation path. Saving rates then vary discontinuously with asset level, generating a poverty trap and divergence in incomes. Reduction of risk raises saving rates. A more equitable distribution of assets can be consistent with greater aggregate savings and growth because of declining marginal propensity to save over some asset intervals.

A Kaldor Matching Model of Real Wage Declines

A model linking macroeconomic equilibrium and income distribution in balanced growth equilibria is developed as a variant to the Kaldor model of factor shares. It departs from the original Kaldor model in assuming equal saving rates and production determined by a matching process between workers and jobs. Macroeconomic equilibrium (national savings equal to investment) combines with competitive microeconomic behavior to determine the real wage and real interest rate. An increase in the ratio of national debt to employment reduces the real wage, explaining recent declines.

Overlapping Labour Markets

Overlapping labour markets arise when some types of workers do not meet employers with some types of jobs. For example, skilled workers could seek high-skill or low-skill jobs, but low skill workers could be limited to low-skill jobs. The paper derives conditions for equilibrium and efficiency, distinguishes reducible from irreducible overlapping labour markets, and describes distributional impacts of proportional demand shifts and technological change. Many labour models incorporate the structure of overlapping labour markets, so that the results have widespread applicability.