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The Permanent Income Hypothesis Revisited

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  • Christiano, Lawrence J
  • Eichenbaum, Martin
  • Marshall, David

Abstract

Measured aggregate U.S. consumption does not behave like a martingale. The authors develop and test two variants of the permanent income model which reflect that. In both, agents make decisions in continuous time. In one variant, martingale behavior holds; serial persistence in measured consumption reflects only time aggregation. In the other, serial persistence also reflects technology shocks, and martingale behavior does not hold. Using both structural and atheoretical econometric models, the authors find little evidence against either variant: aggregate quarterly U.S. data do not convincingly distinguish between their continuous time models. Copyright 1991 by The Econometric Society.

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  • Christiano, Lawrence J & Eichenbaum, Martin & Marshall, David, 1991. "The Permanent Income Hypothesis Revisited," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 397-423, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecm:emetrp:v:59:y:1991:i:2:p:397-423
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