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2016 Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics

Lecture & ConfERENCE - May 17-19, 2017

"Household Behavior and the Dynamics of Inequality"

Sir Richard Blundell
University College London

The lecture discussed the ways in which evolving inequality in individual wages and earnings passes through into inequality in household income and differences in consumption between households. Specifically, it examined how families cope with unexpected changes in the earnings of family members. These coping mechanisms include decisions by other household members on whether, and to what extent, they should enter the labor market, and childcare arrangements. The lecture also discussed how a family’s existing savings influence these decisions, and the role of tax policies and social welfare programs.

Video of the lecture

Conference

Thursday, May 18, 2017
Time Title
9:15 John Van Reenan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Turbulence, Firm Decentralization and Growth in Bad Times (joint with Philippe Aghion - College de France and London School of Economics, Nicholas Bloom - Stanford University, Brian Lucking - Stanford University and Raffaella Sadun - Harvard University)
10:45 Rachel Griffith (University of Manchester): How Well Targeted are Soda Taxes? (joint with Pierre Dubois – Toulouse School of Economics and Martin O'Connell - Institute for Fiscal Studies)
11:45 Manuel Arellano (Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros): Nonlinear Panel Data Methods for Dynamic Heterogeneous Agent Models (joint with Stéphane Bonhomme - University of Chicago)
2:30 Richard Smith (University of Cambridge): GEL-Based Inference with Unconditional Moment Inequality Restrictions (joint with Nicky Grant - University of Manchester)
4:00 Rosa Matzkin (University of California Los Angeles): Individual Counterfactuals with Multidimensional Unobserved Heterogeneity (joint with Richard Blundell and Dennis Kristensen - both University College London)
Friday, May 19, 2017
Time Title
9:15 Luigi Pistaferri (Stanford University): Marriage, Social Insurance, and Labor Supply (joint with Hamish Low - University of Cambridge, Costas Meghir - Yale University and Alessandra Voena - University of Chicago)
10:45 Jean-Marc Robin (Sciences Po): Marriage, Labor Supply, and Home Production (joint with Marion Goussé - Université Laval and Nicolas Jacquemet - Paris School of Economics and Université Paris)
11:45 Costas Meghir (Yale University): Human Capital, Marriage and Public Goods (joint with Pierre-Andre Chiappori - Columbia University and Monica Costa Dias - Institute for Fiscal Studies)
2:30 Arthur Lewbel (Boston College): Keeping up with Peers in India: A New Social Interactions Model of Perceived Needs (joint with Samuel Norris - Northwestern University, Krishna Pendakur - Simon Fraser University and Xi Qu - Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
4:00 Magne Mogstad (University of Chicago): Disability Benefits, Consumption Insurance, and Household Labor Supply (joint with David Autor – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Andreas Kostol – Norges Bank Research and Bradley Setzler – University of Chicago)

Short Course

A short course for faculty and graduate students on "The Microeconometric Analysis of Consumption, Savings and Labor Supply" held on Mondays, November 6, 13, 20, 27, 2017.
View the Course Announcement.
Lecture 1:  Overview: The Microeconometric Analysis of Consumption, Savings and Labour Supply
Lecture 2 Life-cycle Labour Supply Decisions and Human Capital
Lecture 3 Consumer Behaviour and Revealed Preference
Lecture 4 Income Dynamics and Consumption Inequality