Abstracts of Working Papers in Economics

1989 Abstracts of Working Papers in Economics  
This section contains abstracts and complete bibliographic information for current working papers, listed alphabetically by primary author. Brief entries appear for secondary authors, cross-referenced to the primary author. For more recent as well as historical information, consult the AWPE DATABASE, available online through BRS. (Call 800-345-4277, or 518-783-1161 collect from overseas.) Abbott, Michael G. PD December . PG 35. PR $2.00. JE 921, 022. KW Life Cycle Model. Age Cohorts.
more » ... tional Altruism. Savings. Consumption. AB In recent years Robert Borro's (1974) ingenious model of intergenerational altruism has taken its place among the major theories of consumption and saving. Testing the Burro model by comparing average percentage changes in consumption across age cohorts is particularly advantageous because it is nonparametric; in determining whether the average consumptions of different age cohorts move together we place no restrictions on preferences beyond the assumptions of homotheticity and time separability. In particular, each Barro clan can have quite different preference parameters. The null hypothesis of our test is that cohort differences in the average percentage change in consumption are due simply to sampling and measurement error. Alternative hypotheses, suggested by the Life Cycle Model, are that (l) the percentage changes in the average consumptions of any two cohorts are more highly correlated the closer in age are the two cohorts, and (2) the variance in the percentage change in consumption is a monotone function of the age of the cohort.
doi:10.1017/s0951007900001133 fatcat:gece2r4j5bfwfhihguvkkuovga