In this article we argue that the life-cycle model that allows demographics to affect household preferences and relaxes the assumption of certainty equivalence can generate hump-shaped consumption profiles over age that are very similar to those observed in household-level data sources.
Recent studies have found a negative relationship between voluntary labour market activity and the opportunity cost of time, measured by the individual's net wage.
This paper places the debate over using consumption or income in studies of inequality growth in a formal intertemporal setting. It highlights the importance of permanent and transitory income uncertainty in the evaluation of growth in consumption inequality.
As the government nears the end of a consultation process on charity taxation, this commentary considers some of the key issues in the debate. What are the economic arguments for tax relief? Is there any evidence that tax incentives have a big effect on individual donations? What has been the impact of tax incentives in the UK? What are so-called `US-style tax deductions and how might they work in the UK? What other reforms to the current system of tax relief might the government consider?
In this paper we show how estimates of aggregate spending in the UK would be affected by using grossing weights that take account of the known dimensions of non-representativeness of the Family Expenditure Survey.
The life-cycle hypothesis predicts that the cross-sectional variance of the marginal utility of consumption is equal to its own lag plus a constant and a random component.
This research is concerned with the demand for lottery tickets and uses data for the UK National Lottery that records the behaviour, incomes and characteristics of almost 10,000 individuals.
Smoothed estimates of the complex relationships between age and intakes of energy, fat, calcium and vitamin C are obtained for males and females from British National Food Survey data covering the period 197494.
This paper illustrates recent trends in household consumption and personal savings in the UK and the US and discusses some theoretical models that can be used to interpret them.
The charitable giving of UK households has changed considerably over the past 20 years. In particular, the proportion of households giving to charity fell by 5 percentage points between 1974 and 1993-94. An increase in the average size of donations meant that total voluntary income.
