The dissertation consists of four self-contained essays on consumption. Essays 1 and 2 consider different measures of aggregate consumption, and Essays 3 and 4 consider how the distributions of income and wealth affect consumption from a macro and micro perspective, respectively. Essay 1 considers the empirical practice of seemingly interchangeable use of two measures of consumption; total consumption expenditure and consumption expenditure on nondurable goods and services. Using data from Sweden and the US in an error correction model, it is shown that consumption functions based on the two measures exhibit significant differences in several aspects of econometric modelling. Essay 2, coauthored with Thomas Holgersson, considers derivation of a univariate and a multivariate version of a test for asymmetry, based on the third central moment. The logic behind the test is that the dependent variable should correspond to the specification of the econometric model; symmetric with linear models and asymmetric with non-linear models. The main result in the empirical application of the test is that orthodox theory seems to be supported for consumption of both nondurable and durable consumption. The consumption of durables shows little deviation from symmetry in the four-country sample, while the consumption of nondurables is shown to be asymmetric in two out of four cases, the UK and the US. Essay 3 departs from the observation that introducing income uncertainty makes the consumption function concave, implying that the distributions of wealth and income are omitted variables in aggregate Euler equations. This implication is tested through estimation of the distributions over time and augmentation of consumption functions, using Swedish data for 1963-2000. The results show that only the dispersion of wealth is significant, the explanation of which is found in the marked changes of the group of households with negative wealth; a group that according to a concave consumption function has the highest marginal propensity to consume. Essay 4 attempts to empirically specify the nature of the alleged concavity of the consumption function. Using grouped household level Swedish data for 1999-2001, it is shown that the marginal propensity to consume out of current resources, i.e. current income and net wealth, is strictly decreasing in current resources and net wealth, but approximately constant in income. Also, an empirical reciprocal to the stylized theoretical consumption function is estimated, and shown to bear a close resemblance to the theoretical version.

Economic uncertainty may affect significantly people’s behavior and hence macroeconomic variables. It is thus important to understand how people behave in presence of different kinds of economic risk. The present dissertation focuses therefore on the impact of the uncertainty in capital and labor income on the individual saving behavior. The underlying uncertain variables are here modeled as stochastic processes that each obey a specific stochastic differential equation, where uncertainty stems either from Poisson or Lévy processes. The results on the optimal behavior are derived by maximizing the individual expected lifetime utility. The first chapter is concerned with the necessary mathematical tools, the change-of-variables formula and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation under Poisson uncertainty. We extend their possible field of application in order make them appropriate for the analysis of the dynamic stochastic optimization problems occurring in the following chapters and elsewhere. The second chapter considers an optimum-saving problem with labor income, where capital risk stems from asset prices that follow geometric L´evy processes. Chapter 3, finally, studies the optimal saving behavior if agents face not only risk but also uncertain spells of unemployment. To this end, we turn back to Poisson processes, which here are used to model properly the separation and matching process.

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Economic uncertainty may affect significantly people’s behavior and hence macroeconomic variables. It is thus important to understand how people behave in presence of different kinds of economic risk. The present dissertation focuses therefore on the impact of the uncertainty in capital and labor income on the individual saving behavior. The underlying uncertain variables are here modeled as stochastic processes that each obey a specific stochastic differential equation, where uncertainty stems either from Poisson or Lévy processes. The results on the optimal behavior are derived by maximizing the individual expected lifetime utility. The first chapter is concerned with the necessary mathematical tools, the change-of-variables formula and the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation under Poisson uncertainty. We extend their possible field of application in order make them appropriate for the analysis of the dynamic stochastic optimization problems occurring in the following chapters and elsewhere. The second chapter considers an optimum-saving problem with labor income, where capital risk stems from asset prices that follow geometric L´evy processes. Chapter 3, finally, studies the optimal saving behavior if agents face not only risk but also uncertain spells of unemployment. To this end, we turn back to Poisson processes, which here are used to model properly the separation and matching process.