Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/101036 
Authors: 
Editors: 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2005-21
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA
Abstract: 
Much of the macroeconomics literature dealing with wealth distribution has become abstracted from modeling housing explicitly. This paper investigates the properties of the wealth distribution and the portfolio composition regarding housing and equity holdings and their relationship to macroeconomic shocks. To this end, I construct a business cycle model in which agents differ in age, income, and wealth and derive utility from housing services. The model is consistent with several facts such as the life-cycle pattern of housing-to-wealth ratios, the larger degree of concentration for nonhousing wealth, and the smaller weight of housing in richer households’ portfolios as well as the larger housing-to-wealth ratios in recessions. In addition, the model delivers the familiar business-cycle moments regarding relative standard deviations and procyclicality of consumption, investment, and employment.
Subjects: 
heterogeneity
business cycles
life cycle
JEL: 
E21
E32
G11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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