A leisurely reading of the life-cycle consumption data

James Bullard () and James Allen Feigenbaum ()

No 2003-017, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: A puzzle in consumption theory is the observation of a hump in age-consumption profiles. We study a general equilibrium life-cycle economy with capital in which households include both consumption and leisure in their period utility function. We calibrate the model and find that a significant hump in life-cycle consumption is a feature of the equilibrium. Thus inclusion of leisure in household preferences may provide part of the explanation of observed life-cycle consumption humps.

Keywords: Consumption (Economics); Consumer behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
Date: 2006
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Journal Article: A leisurely reading of the life-cycle consumption data (2007)
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