Endogenous Rate Of Time Preference Research Articles

A Tale of Two Motives: Endogenous Time Preference, Cash-in-Advance Constraints and Monetary Policy

This paper demonstrates the effects of modeling an endogenous rate of time preference and two cash-in-advance constraints. If the constraint is levied on consumption and capital goods, time preference effects are neutral and cash-in-advance constraint effects invert the Tobin Effect. If the constraint applies solely to consumption goods, opposing motives are offsetting and monetary policy is super neutral.

Habit formation, adjustment costs, and international transmission of fiscal policy

The paper studies the effects of fiscal policy in an integrated world economy. The setup is one with habit-forming endogenous rates of time preference and adjustment costs in investment. Most of the predictions of the model are in line with the recent empirical literature on fiscal policy. For instance, in response to a balanced fiscal expansion, we obtain positive long-run output multipliers, long-run increases in employment, short- and medium-run increases in wages and decreases in investment. Our results suggest that short-run government spending multipliers are smaller than tax multipliers. Most importantly, we show that the model can generate positive short- and medium-run consumption responses to a positive fiscal shock. This is relevant as negative consumption responses are considered to be one of the main challenges facing neo-classical models of fiscal policy.

Poverty Traps and Growth in a Model of Endogenous Time Preference

We introduce endogenous probability of survival in the Keynes-Ramsey optimal growth model. An individual's probability of survival is assumed to be dependent on past levels of consumption. Endogenous probability of survival implies that the rate of time preference (or degree of patience) of an individual is endogenously determined. We solve the dynamic optimization problem facing an agent and provide a complete characterization of the steady states and their stability properties. We find that with endogenous rate of time preference an economy may have multiple steady state equilibria. The equilibrium an economy converges to depends on its initial conditions. The results are interpreted in light of the growth experiences of developing economies. The model can explain why two economies that have identical production technologies and identical preferences may converge to different levels of income depending on initial conditions. We estimate the relationship between adult probability of survival and lagged consumption for a cross section of countries. Our estimation results and subsequent simulations of the model suggest that if we interpret capital in our model broadly to include both physical and human capital, poverty traps are empirically plausible.

Existence, optimality and dynamics of equilibria with endogenous time preference

Abstract This paper studies the dynamic implications of the endogenous rate of time preference depending on the stock of capital, in a one-sector growth model. The planner’s problem is presented and the optimal paths are characterized. We prove that there exists a critical value of initial stock, in the vicinity of which, small differences lead to permanent differences in the optimal path. Indeed, we show that a development trap can arise even under a strictly convex technology. In contrast with the early contributions that consider recursive preferences, the critical stock is not an unstable steady state so that if an economy starts at this stock, an indeterminacy will emerge. We also show that even under a convex–concave technology, the optimal path can exhibit global convergence to a unique stationary point. The multipliers system associated with an optimal path is proven to be the supporting price system of a competitive equilibrium under externality and detailed results concerning the properties of optimal (equilibrium) paths are provided. We show that the model exhibits globally monotone capital sequences yielding a richer set of potential dynamics than the classic model with exogenous discounting.

Persistent inequality with endogenous rate of time preference

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a theory that can explain the persistence of inequality in an economy where household agents are identical in terms of their preferences and have access to the same production technology.Design/methodology/approach – An overlapping generations model is developed where agents are imperfectly altruistic and face uncertain lifetimes. The rate of time preference of an agent depends on her probability of survival which is increasing in her level of consumption. An agent's initial endowment of human capital jointly determines her patience and willingness to accumulate human capital and other productive assets.Findings – It was found that inequality may persist in the economy as a result of endogenous rate of time preference. Agents with low initial endowment of human capital are impatient and choose not to invest in human capital. Agents with initial endowment of human capital above a certain threshold choose to invest in human capital as they expect to survive ...

Monetary policy and endogenous time preference

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to derive the real implications of inflation targeting using optimizing models characterized by endogenous time preference.Design/methodology/approachTo ensure consistent consumption and savings behavior, the rate of time preference is modeled as an increasing function of real wealth.FindingsThe results are not uniform and depend on the methods for modeling money in the general equilibrium framework; money in the utility function (MIU) and cash‐in‐advance constraints (CIA). With MIU, time preference wealth effects link the monetary and real sectors by endogenizing real interest rate. Monetary growth raises steady state capital and consumption by the Tobin effect. However, if money is introduced through CIA constraints, inflation policies are sensitive to the structure of the constraint itself. If the constraint applies to consumption and capital purchases, monetary growth lowers the steady state demand for both commodities and reverses the Tobin effect. If the constraint applies only to consumption goods, the same monetary policy is superneutral. This time preference specification has important advantages. It is consistent with the literature that integrates reinforcing wealth effects into aggregative models using ad‐hoc consumption or savings functions. Allowing the rate of time preference to depend positively on real wealth implies that optimizing behavior, not ad‐hoc specification yields wealth effects that endogenize the real interest rate and generate a Tobin effect. This time preference specification provides optimizing foundations for modeling savings as a decreasing function of real wealth, which is empirically verifiable and consistent with empirical predictions of consumption as an increasing function of real wealth.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates the different effects that monetary policy maintains on steady state capital, consumption and real balance holdings in economies characterized by an endogenous rate of time preference.

Endogenous time preference and optimal growth

We adapt the classic one-sector optimal growth model to include an endogenous rate of time preference along the lines of Becker and Mulligan (1997). The resulting model is both time-consistent and analytically tractable. Capital sequences are shown to be globally monotone and stable under very general circumstances using lattice programming techniques and value orders. We analyze a series of examples that exhibit a variety of behaviors, including closed-form solutions, unique steady-states, multiple steady-states, and conditionally sustained growth. The endogenous rate of discount preserves monotonicity and stability while allowing for the possibility of non-global convergence.

Exchange rate policies and endogenous time preference: a dynamic analysis of a small open economy

The effects of exchange rate policies are examined for a small open economy with endogenous rate of time preference. Using optimizing framework and introducing money into the utility function, it is shown that a depreciation of the domestic currency generates a surplus in the current account. It also leads to an increase in consumption and a decrease in the holdings of real balances in the long run.

Population dynamics and life-cycle consumption

This paper presents a model where aggregate consumption depends on both the level of wealth and the age structure of population. The explicit consideration of an endogenous rate of time preference permits to analyze the important role of population ageing as a determinant of aggregate saving.

HABIT FORMATION AND GOVERNMENT SPENDING IN A SMALL OPEN ECONOMY

The paper studies the effects of an expansionary fiscal policy in a general equilibrium model of a small open economy. Households are assumed to possess habit-forming, endogenous rates of time preference. In response to fiscal shocks, the model generates cyclical endogenous persistence and procyclical time paths for consumption, employment, and investment, as well as a countercyclical path for the current account. Furthermore, fiscal shocks are shown to have positive long-run effects on output and negative long-run effects on consumption.

Population Dynamics and Life-Cycle Consumption

This paper presents a model where aggregate consumption depends on both the level of wealth and the age structure of population. The explicit consideration of an endogenous rate of time preference permits to analyze the important role of population ageing as a determinant of aggregate saving.

Dynamic Choices of Hyperbolic Consumers

Laboratory and field studies of time preference find that discount rates are much greater in the short-run than in the long-run. Hyperbolic discount functions capture this property. This paper solves the decision problem of a hyperbolic consumer who faces stochastic income and a borrowing constraint. The paper uses the bounded variation calculus to derive the Hyperbolic Euler Relation, a natural generalization of the standard Exponential Euler Relation. The Hyperbolic Euler Relation implies that consumers act as if they have endogenous rates of time preference that rise and fall with the future marginal propensity to consume (e.g., discount rates that endogenously range from 5% to 41% for the example discussed in the paper).

On the roles of impatiencein homothetic growth paths

This article reexamines the role of long-run endogenous impatience in homothetic growth paths. Using a class of intertemporal preferences assuming a continuous time generator representation, the existence, uniqueness and determinacy properties of a homothetic growth path with endogenous rates of time preference are checked. The argument is based on extensive use of prospective utility. The associated utilities are shown to exhibit a rate of time preference function that becomes invariant to prospective utility along the homothetic growth solution. They also enter in a normal way in the generating function. Finally and at the opposite of earlier conclusions for steady states, the nil rate of time preference case associated with multiplicatively separable generators cannot anymore be discarded.

Government Spending and Capital Accumulation with Endogenous Time Preference

This paper extends S. Djajic (1987) to allow for an endogenous rate of time preference, and reexamines Djajic's experiment: how the optimal rates of private consumption and capital accumulation will respond to an unanticipated temporary expansion in government spending. The key factors determining the adjustment patterns are the difference between the marginal utility of private consumption and that of public spending, the timing of policy reversion, and the relationship between private and public consumption in household utility. If private and public consumption are Edgeworth independent, whether investment increases with the length of fiscal expansion depends on whether the marginal utility of private consumption exceeds that of public consumption.

Effects of Government Spending on the Current Account with Endogenous Time Preference

This paper extends a previous model to set up a small open economy with perfect capital mobility, and examines the effects of an unanticipated permanent rise in public spending on the optimal rates of private consumption and the current account. The novelty of the paper is consideration of the relationship between private and public consumption in the household's utility function as well as endogenous rates of time preference. It is found that the key factor determining the adjustment patterns of private consumption and the current account is the marginal utility of private consumption and of public spending, which results from endogenous recursive preferences.

Effects of Government Spending on the Current Account with Endogenous Time Preference

This paper extends a previous model to set up a small open economy with perfect capital mobility, and examines the effects of an unanticipated permanent rise in public spending on the optimal rates of private consumption and the current account. The novelty of the paper is consideration of the relationship between private and public consumption in the household's utility function as well as endogenous rates of time preference. It is found that the key factor determining the adjustment patterns of private consumption and the current account is the marginal utility of private consumption and of public spending, which results from endogenous recursive preferences.

An endogenous rate of time preference, the Penrose effect, and dynamic optimality of environmental quality.

In the present paper, the endogenous theory of time preference is extended to analyze those processes of capital accumulation and changes in environmental quality that are dynamically optimum with respect to the intertemporal preference ordering of the representative individual of the society in question. The analysis is carried out within the conceptual framework of the dynamic analysis of environmental quality, as has been developed by a number of economists for specific cases of the fisheries and forestry commons. The duality principles on intertemporal preference ordering and capital accumulation are extended to the situation where processes of capital accumulation are subject to the Penrose effect, which exhibit the marginal decrease in the effect of investment in private and social overhead capital upon the rate at which capital is accumulated. The dynamically optimum time-path of economic activities is characterized by the proportionality of two systems of imputed, or efficient, prices, one associated with the given intertemporal ordering and another associated with processes of accumulation of private and social overhead capital. It is particularly shown that the dynamically optimality of the processes of capital accumulation involving both private and social overhead capital is characterized by the conditions that are identical with those involving private capital, with the role of social overhead capital only indirectly exhibited.

Weakly Nonseparable Preferences and Distortionary Taxes in a Small Open Economy

This paper examines the dynamic effects of distortionary taxes in a small open economy. The employed utility function implies both endogenous rates of time preference and a tractable form of weak nonseparability between consumption and leisure. Weak nonseparability induces novel long-run welfare and wealth effects of taxes and generates very different current account movements. Endogenous rates of time preference facilitate the examination of a tax on international borrowing and lending. Copyright 1994 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

Habits and Time Preference

This paper proposes a utility function incorporating both habit formation and an endogenous rate of time preference in a manner consistent with the intuition of Irving Fisher regarding the influence of past consumption on impatience. It is shown that the ne w specification is tractable and generates new predictions in the cont ext of three model economies: (1) a closed economy with heterogeneous agents, (2) a small open economy with one traded good and one nontra ded good, and (3) a small open economy with a traded good and domestic money. Copyright 1993 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

OPTIMAL INTERNATIONAL DEBT AND ENDOGENOUS TIME PREFERENCE IN A DEMOGRAPHICALLY DIVIDED WORLD (*)

ABSTRACTThe international transmission of shocks in population growth and technology is examined in an interdependent two‐country world economy; decisions concerning the intertemporal allocation are made by social planners with an infinite horizon and an endogenous rate of time preference. Steady state shocks in population growth are shown to be negatively transmitted to the rate of time preference. In the steady state, the optimal foreign debt is determinate and it brings about a convergence of time preference. The net creditor and debtor positions in the steady state depend on the discount rate functions, the states of technology and the rates of population growth.