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    <title>EconStor Collection: Working Paper Series, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta</title>
    <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64622</link>
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      <title>US tax policy and health insurance demand: Can a regressive policy improve welfare?</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70764</link>
      <description>Title: US tax policy and health insurance demand: Can a regressive policy improve welfare?
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Jeske, Karsten; Kitao, Sagiri
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: The U.S. tax policy on health insurance is regressive because it favors only those offered group insurance through their employers, who tend to have a relatively high income. Moreover, the subsidy takes the form of deductions from the progressive income tax system, giving high-income earners a larger subsidy. To understand the effects of the policy, we construct a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogenous agents and an endogenous demand for health insurance. We use the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to calibrate the process for income, health expenditures, and health insurance offer status through employers and succeed in matching the pattern of insurance demand as observed in the data. We find that despite the regressiveness of the current policy, a complete removal of the subsidy would result in a partial collapse of the group insurance market, a significant reduction in the insurance coverage, and a reduction in welfare coverage. There is, however, room for raising the coverage and significantly improving welfare by extending a refundable credit to the individual insurance market.</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Confronting model misspecification in macroeconomics</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70763</link>
      <description>Title: Confronting model misspecification in macroeconomics
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Waggoner, Daniel F.; Zha, Tao
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: We estimate a Markov-switching mixture of two familiar macroeconomic models: a richly parameterized dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model and a corresponding Bayesian vector autoregression (BVAR) model. We show that the Markov-switching mixture model dominates both individual models and improves the fit considerably. Our estimation indicates that the DSGE model plays an important role only in the late 1970s and the early 1980s. We show how to use the mixture model as a data filter for estimation of the DSGE model when the BVAR model is not identified. Moreover, we show how to compute the impulse responses to the same type of shock shared by the DSGE and BVAR models when the shock is identified in the BVAR model. Our exercises demonstrate the importance of integrating model uncertainty and parameter uncertainty to address potential model misspecification in macroeconomics.</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Equilibrium mortgage choice and housing tenure decisions with refinancing</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70762</link>
      <description>Title: Equilibrium mortgage choice and housing tenure decisions with refinancing
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Chambers, Matthew S.; Garriga, Carlos; Schlagenhauf, Don
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: The last decade has brought about substantial mortgage innovation and increased refinancing. The objective of this paper is to understand the determinants and implications of mortgage choice in the context of a general equilibrium model with incomplete markets. The equilibrium characterization allows us to study the impact of mortgage financing decisions in the productive economy. We show the influence of different contract characteristics such as the down payment requirement, repayment structure, and the amortization schedule for mortgage choice. We find that loan products that allow for low or no down payment or an increasing repayment schedule increase the participation of young and lower-income households. We find evidence that the volume of housing transactions increases when the payment profile is increasing and households have little housing equity. In contrast, we show that loans that allow for a rapid accumulation of home equity can still have positive participation effects without increasing the volatility of the housing market. The model predicts that the expansion of mortgage contracts and refinancing improves risk sharing opportunities for homeowners, but the magnitude varies with each contract.</description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>To work or not to work: The economics of a mother's dilemma</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/70761</link>
      <description>Title: To work or not to work: The economics of a mother's dilemma
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Hotchkiss, Julie L.; Pitts, M. Melinda; Walker, Mary Beth
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: Utilizing linked vital statistics, administrative employer, and state welfare records, the analysis in this paper investigates the determinants of a woman's intermittent labor force decision at the time of a major life event: the birth of a child. The results indicate that both direct and opportunity labor market costs of exiting the workforce figure significantly into that decision. Further, the analysis reveals the importance of including information about the mother's prebirth job when making inferences about the role various demographics play in the intermittent labor force decision.</description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Oct 2010 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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