UMI  
ProQuest® Dissertations & Theses
The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more...
ProQuest  
 
 
Essays in macroeconomics with heterogeneous agents
by Noual, Pierre-Alexandre, PhD, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 2007, 0 pages; 3287070
 

Abstract: My dissertation investigates two models of macroeconomics with heterogeneous agents. The first chapter analyzes a setup where agents are ex ante identical, yet receive idiosyncratic income shocks which make them heterogeneous ex post. A private information friction gives rise to incomplete risk-sharing as a constrained-efficient allocation. The second chapter again considers ex post heterogeneous agents: they have identical preferences but face idiosyncratic shocks to their earning capacity. There the focus is not on risk-sharing, but on the aggregate consequences for labor supply. Specifically, the first chapter examines efficient intertemporal consumption insurance with private information about income shocks. The novel feature is a monitoring technology available to the social planner: monitoring, though costly, can be used to mitigate the information friction. The chapter characterizes the optimal mix of monitoring and distortion of promised values used to provide incentives and overcome the private information friction. Efficient stationary consumption distributions are found to be nondegenerate in some cases. The second chapter is drawn from joint work with François Gourio. It attempts to reconcile the large volatility of aggregate employment with small micro estimates of the elasticity of labor supply. Our model of indivisible labor with complete markets shows that the aggregate Frisch elasticity of labor supply depends on the shape of the distribution of reservation wages. Even if most workers are wage-inelastic, the aggregate elasticity can be large if sufficiently many agents are close to their reservation wage. To evaluate this hypothesis, we estimate the model using monthly panel data drawn from the NLSY. This allows us to measure the aggregate elasticity implied by realistic heterogeneity. We estimate a Frisch elasticity around 1.5. Interestingly, this elasticity is countercyclical. Our model also has a natural cross-sectional implication: workers who are nearly indifferent between working or not are more sensitive to aggregate fluctuations. We find empirical support for this prediction: on average, the group of marginal workers, which makes up 22% of the population, accounts for 49% of aggregate fluctuations in employment.

 
Advisor: Alvarez, Fernando
School: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Source: DAI-A 68/10, p. 4401, Apr 2008
Source Type: PhD
Subjects: Economics; Labor economics; Economic theory
Publication Number: 3287070
     
Adobe PDF Access the complete dissertation:
 

» Find an electronic copy at your library.
  Use the link below to access a full citation record of this graduate work:
  http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl%3furl_ver=Z39.88-2004%26res_dat=xri:pqdiss%26rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation%26rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3287070
  If your library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, you may be entitled to a free electronic version of this graduate work. If not, you will have the option to purchase one, and access a 24 page preview for free (if available).

 
 
 

About ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
With over 2.3 million records, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. It is the database of record for graduate research.

The database includes citations of graduate works ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. Of the 2.3 million graduate works included in the database, ProQuest offers more than 1.9 million in full text formats. Of those, over 860,000 are available in PDF format. More than 60,000 dissertations and theses are added to the database each year.

If you have questions, please feel free to visit the ProQuest Web site - http://www.il.proquest.com - or call ProQuest Hotline Customer Support at 1-800-521-3042.



Copyright © 2007 ProQuest. All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions

ProQuest