EITM: Aggregate and Individual Behavior: Bringing Theory and Empirics Together

拟议的研究的主要目标是在微观经济层面上研究非凸性的总体和政策含义。有充分的证据表明，非凸性在个体家庭和企业层面上都很重要。悬而未决的问题是，是否有这些非凸性的总的影响。探讨这个问题对于理解总体波动和政策评估都很重要。 这里提出的应用程序共享一个共同的研究方法：在个人（公司或家庭）层面的动态优化模型的规格与估计相结合，通过间接推理。因此，经验工作直接与个人行为的正式模型联系在一起。由于非凸性，这些应用程序依赖于一个动态的离散选择框架。研究的目标是：（一）利用这种方法在一个动态的一般均衡设置，以评估总的影响和（二）探索政策的应用，如投资税收抵免。拟议的ActivityThe拟议的研究将有三个广泛的影响。首先，这项工作将提高我们评估税收和补贴政策对经济的影响的能力，无论是在微观层面还是在总量层面。这与可能对购买公司和家庭耐用品提供补贴的政策直接相关。这些研究成果将通过分发论文和参加科学会议加以传播。其次，拟议工作的一部分是以对研究界有用的时刻的形式创建数据摘要。第三，拟议的工作将包括分享研究技术，以加强正式建模与其他研究人员的实证研究的联系。

The primary objective of the proposed research is to study the aggregate and policy implications of non-convexities at the microeconomic level. There is ample evidence that non-convexities matter at the individual household and firm levels. The open question is whether there are aggregate implications of these non-convexities. Answering this question is important for both understanding aggregate fluctuations and for policy evaluation. The applications proposed here share a common research methodology: the specification of a model of dynamic optimization at the individual (firm or household) level combined with estimation through indirect inference. Thus the empirical work is directly tied to the formal modeling of individual behavior. Due to non-convexities, these applications rest upon a dynamic discrete choice framework. The goals of the research are: (i) to utilize this methodology within a dynamic general equilibrium setting to evaluate aggregate implications and (ii) to explore policy applications, such as investment tax credits.Broader Impacts of Proposed ActivityThe proposed research will have three broad impacts. First, the work will advance our ability to evaluate the impact of tax and subsidy policies on the economy, both at the micro-level and at the aggregate level. This pertains directly to policy that might subsidize the purchases of firm and household durables. These research results will be disseminated through circulating papers and participation in scientific conferences. Second, part of the proposed work is intended to create data summaries in the form of moments that will be useful to the research community. Third, the proposed work will include a sharing of research techniques to enhance the linking of formal modeling with empirical studies by other researchers.