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Produce or Speculate? Asset Bubbles, Occupational Choice and Efficiency

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  • Cahuc, Pierre

    (Sciences Po, Paris)

  • Challe, Edouard

    (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris)

Abstract

We study the macroeconomic effects of rational asset bubbles in an overlapping-generations economy where asset trading requires specialized intermediaries and where agents freely choose between working in the production or in the financial sector. Frictions in the market for deposits create rents in the financial sector that affect workers' choice of occupation. When rents are large, the private gains associated with trading asset bubbles may lead too many workers to become speculators, thereby causing rational bubbles to lose their efficiency properties. Moreover, if speculation can be carried out by skilled labor only, then asset bubbles displace skilled workers away from the productive sector and raise income and consumption inequalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Cahuc, Pierre & Challe, Edouard, 2009. "Produce or Speculate? Asset Bubbles, Occupational Choice and Efficiency," IZA Discussion Papers 4630, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4630
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    dynamic efficiency; occupational choice; rational bubbles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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