Life-Cycle Consumption and Children: Evidence from a Structural Estimation
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Life-Cycle Consumption and Children : Evidence from a Structural Estimation. / Jørgensen, Thomas Høgholm.
In: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 79, No. 5, 10.2017, p. 717–746 .Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Life-Cycle Consumption and Children
T2 - Evidence from a Structural Estimation
AU - Jørgensen, Thomas Høgholm
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - I estimate by maximum likelihood a dynamic model of optimal intertemporal allocation of consumption in the presence of children using high-quality Danish longitudinal data. The number and age of all children can affect the marginal utility of consumption while income uncertainty, credit constraints and postretirement motives also influence household behaviour. While I estimate that children have a surprisingly small effect on the marginal utility of non-durable consumption, data simulated from the estimated model replicates similar correlations between log consumption growth and changing household composition as found in the Danish data and typically found in UK and US data. To reconcile the results with existing studies, I illustrate how ignoring precautionary motives increases the estimated importance of children. The results indicate that precautionary motives might play a larger role than children in explaining the observed consumption age profile.
AB - I estimate by maximum likelihood a dynamic model of optimal intertemporal allocation of consumption in the presence of children using high-quality Danish longitudinal data. The number and age of all children can affect the marginal utility of consumption while income uncertainty, credit constraints and postretirement motives also influence household behaviour. While I estimate that children have a surprisingly small effect on the marginal utility of non-durable consumption, data simulated from the estimated model replicates similar correlations between log consumption growth and changing household composition as found in the Danish data and typically found in UK and US data. To reconcile the results with existing studies, I illustrate how ignoring precautionary motives increases the estimated importance of children. The results indicate that precautionary motives might play a larger role than children in explaining the observed consumption age profile.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - D12
KW - D14
KW - D91
U2 - 10.1111/obes.12170
DO - 10.1111/obes.12170
M3 - Journal article
VL - 79
SP - 717
EP - 746
JO - Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
JF - Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics
SN - 0305-9049
IS - 5
ER -
ID: 169358611