Dynamic Models of Human and Financial Capital Accumulation

[9708991]贾德是一个典型的美国人吗？这个问题以前已经分析过了，但是在某种程度上忽略了教育投资的风险方面。教育的回报是不确定的，但对这种不确定性的适当反应取决于不确定性的性质。本项目将金融经济学的标准投资理念应用于人力资本和教育问题。然后整合人力资本和金融投资决策，并分析当前的税收制度和改革建议。由于税收优惠的储蓄条款，目前的税制部分是消费税，部分是所得税。此外，现行制度允许纳税人通过扣减州税和地方税来支付部分教育费用。真正的消费税改革将允许所有形式的储蓄的费用化，无论是金融工具还是人力资本投资。许多所谓的消费税改革将不允许自费教育费用，因此有利于实物资本投资。本项目探讨了这些事实在教育和储蓄的生命周期模型中的重要性。为了实现这些目标，该项目还开发了解决此类经济问题的新计算方法。这些新方法在许多其他经济问题上也将被证明是有用的。

9708991 Judd Is a typical American "undereducated"? This issue has been analyzed before, but in a fashion that ignored the risky aspects of educational investments. The return to education is uncertain, but the proper response to this uncertainty depends on the nature of the uncertainty. This project applies standard investment ideas from financial economics to human capital and educational problems. It then integrates the human capital and financial investment decisions, and analyzes the current tax system and proposed reforms. The current system is, due to tax-favored savings provisions, partially a consumption and partially an income tax system. Also, the current system allows for some expensing of educational expenses through the deduction of state and local taxes for taxpayers who itemize. True consumption tax reform would allow expensing of all forms of savings, whether it be in the form of financial instruments or human capital investments. Many so-called consumption tax reforms would not allow expensing out-of-pocket education costs, and thereby favor physical capital investments. This project explores the importance of these facts in life-cycle models of education and savings. To accomplish these objectives, this project also develops new computational methods of solving such economic problems. These new methods will also prove useful in many other economic problems.