IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/red/sed006/248.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Overlapping Generations Models of an Age-Group Society: The Rendille of Northern Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Merwan H. Engineer

    (University of Victoria)

  • Ming Kang
  • Eric Roth
  • Linda Welling

Abstract

This paper makes five contributions to the modeling of societies organized primarily according to age. First, it models the social rules adhered to by a particular age-group society, the Rendille of Northern Kenya. Second, it shows that their age-group rules are well represented by the standard overlapping generations (OLG) model. Third, we develop a genealogical OLG model that closely captures lifecycle transitions and lineages. Fourth, despite heterogeneity in the timing of marriage and birthing, the model can be calibrated using aggregate data. Fifth, the model permits an analysis of institutions that reveals the intergenerational conflicts between the lineages in changing the social rules

Suggested Citation

  • Merwan H. Engineer & Ming Kang & Eric Roth & Linda Welling, 2006. "Overlapping Generations Models of an Age-Group Society: The Rendille of Northern Kenya," 2006 Meeting Papers 248, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed006:248
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.red-files-public.s3.amazonaws.com/meetpapers/2006/paper_248.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Huggett, Mark, 1996. "Wealth distribution in life-cycle economies," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 469-494, December.
    2. Engineer, Merwan & Esteban, Joan & Sakovics, Jozsef, 1997. "Costly transfer institutions and the core in an overlapping generations model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 287-300, February.
    3. Gokhale, Jagadeesh & Kotlikoff, Laurence J. & Sefton, James & Weale, Martin, 2001. "Simulating the transmission of wealth inequality via bequests," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 93-128, January.
    4. Engineer, Merwan & Bernhardt, Dan, 1992. "Endogenous transfer institutions in overlapping generations," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 445-474, June.
    5. Merwan H. Engineer & Linda Welling, 2004. "Overlapping Generations Models and Graded Age-Set Societies," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(3), pages 454-476, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hendricks, Lutz, 2007. "How important is discount rate heterogeneity for wealth inequality?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 3042-3068, September.
    2. Futagami, Koichi & Shibata, Akihisa, 1999. "Welfare effects of bubbles in an endogenous growth model," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 381-403, December.
    3. Hendricks, Lutz, 2007. "The intergenerational persistence of lifetime earnings," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 125-144, January.
    4. Mariacristina De Nardi & Giulio Fella, 2017. "Saving and Wealth Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 280-300, October.
    5. Fang Yang, 2005. "Accounting for the heterogeneity in retirement wealth," Working Papers 638, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    6. De Nardi, Mariacristina & Yang, Fang, 2014. "Bequests and heterogeneity in retirement wealth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 182-196.
    7. Cagetti, Marco & De Nardi, Mariacristina, 2008. "Wealth Inequality: Data And Models," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(S2), pages 285-313, September.
    8. Ana Castañeda & Javier Díaz-Giménez & José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, "undated". ""Earnings and Wealth Inequality and Income Taxation: Quantifying the Trade-Offs of Switching to a Proportional Income Tax in the U.S.''," CARESS Working Papres 98-14, University of Pennsylvania Center for Analytic Research and Economics in the Social Sciences.
    9. Merwan H. Engineer & Linda Welling, 2004. "Overlapping Generations Models and Graded Age-Set Societies," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(3), pages 454-476, September.
    10. Jagadeesh Gokhale & Laurence J. Kotlikoff, 2002. "The Impact of Social Security and Other Factors on the Distribution of Wealth," NBER Chapters, in: The Distributional Aspects of Social Security and Social Security Reform, pages 85-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Mariacristina De Nardi, 2004. "Wealth Inequality and Intergenerational Links," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 743-768.
    12. Davies, James B. & Lluberas, Rodrigo & Waldenström, Daniel, 2024. "Long-Term Trends in the Distribution of Wealth and Inheritance," Working Paper Series 1502, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    13. Frank Cowell & Brian Nolan & Javier Olivera & Philippe Van Kerm, 2017. "Wealth, Top Incomes and Inequality," LWS Working papers 24, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Fang Yang, 2012. "Lifetime Earning and Heterogeneity in Retirement Wealth: the Role of Bequests, Minimum Consumption, and Social Security," Discussion Papers 12-03, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    15. Merwan Engineer & Linda Welling, 2001. "Overlapping Generations Models of Graded Age-Group Societies: Economics Meets Ethnography," Department Discussion Papers 0102, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    16. Jochen Mankart & Rigas Oikonomou, 2017. "Household Search and the Aggregate Labour Market," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(4), pages 1735-1788.
    17. Juan-Carlos Cordoba, 2004. "Debt-Constraints or Incomplete Markets? A Decomposition of the Wealth and Consumption Inequality in the U.S," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 335, Econometric Society.
    18. Richard M. H. Suen, 2014. "Time Preference And The Distributions Of Wealth And Income," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 364-381, January.
    19. Christopher D. Carroll, 2000. "Requiem for the Representative Consumer? Aggregate Implications of Microeconomic Consumption Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 110-115, May.
    20. Greg Kaplan, 2012. "Inequality and the life cycle," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 3(3), pages 471-525, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Overlapping Generations Model; Age-Group Societies; Institutions; Political Economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:red:sed006:248. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.