Macroeconomic Implications of Cross-Sectional Variation

该项目背后的主要前提是，微观经济层面的差异对于理解宏观经济层面的差异很重要。我们的研究议程涉及开发和评估异质因素、一般均衡生命周期模型，这些模型可以进行定量分析，并提供与收入、收入、消费和财富的小组数据的有效互动。我们应用这种方法的经济学问题包括：不平等衡量标准中的时间变化对理解股市行为的影响；社会保障所起的代际风险分担作用的重要性以及各种改革对福利的影响；以及不完美的风险分担对于理解收入、财富和消费不平等的重要性。未来的工作将包括生命周期的最佳投资组合选择，人口结构变化对金融市场的影响，与住房和投资组合选择有关的问题，以及微观经济层面的极端事件对总价格和数量产生重要影响的程度。该项目的结果应该是更深入地了解横截面变化对总结果、金融市场和资产价格的影响。长期目标是促进发展一类横截面分布起基本作用的宏观经济和金融模式。

The main premise behind the project is that variation at the microeconomic level is important for understanding variation at the macroeconomic level. Our research agenda involves the development and evaluation of heterogeneous agent, general equilibrium life-cycle models which are amenable to quantitative analysis and which provide for an effective interaction with panel data on income, earnings, consumption and wealth. The economic questions to which we apply this methodology include: the implications of time variation in measures of inequality for understanding stock market behavior; the importance of the intergenerational risk sharing role played by social security and the welfare implications of various reforms; and the importance of imperfect risk sharing for understanding inequality in income, wealth and consumption. Future work will include optimal portfolio choice over the life cycle, the implications of changes in demographic structure for financial markets, questions related to housing and portfolio choice, and the extent to which extreme events at the microeconomic level have important consequences for aggregate prices and quantities.The outcome of the project should be a deeper understanding of the implications of cross-sectional variation for aggregate outcomes, financial markets and asset prices. The long- term goal is to contribute to the development of a class of macroeconomic and financial models in which cross-sectional distributions play a fundamental role.