HD28 .M414 -57 ALFRED P. WORKING PAPER SLOAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT THE INTERACTION BETWEEN TIME-NONSEPARABLE PREFERENCES AND TIME AGGREGATON by John Heaton December 1991 Latest Revision: 3181-90-EFA Previous Version: 3376-92-EFA Working Paper No. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 02139 THE INTERACTION BETWEEN TIME-NONSEPARABLE PREFERENCES AND TIME AGGREGATON by John Heaton December 1991 Latest Revision: 3181-90-EFA Previous Version: 3376-92-EFA Working Paper No. f FEB ? 1 1992 I The Interaction Between Time-Nonseparable Preferences AND Time Aggregation John Heaton Department of Economics and Sloan School of Management M. I.T. June 1990 Revised December 1991 ABSTRACT develop and empirically analyze a continuous-time, representative consumer model in which the consumer has Within this framework I time-nonseparable preferences of several forms. aggregation and time nonseparabilities in preferences over show how time show that the behavior of both consumption streams can interact. I seasonally adjusted and unadjusted consumption data is consistent with a model of time-nonseparable preferences in which the consumption goods are durable and in which individuals develop habit over the flow of services The presence of time nonseparabilities in preferences is from the good. important because the data does not support a version of the model that focuses solely upon time aggregation and ignores time nonseparabilities in preferences by making preferences time additive. this paper linear-quadratic, In I Many helpful comments and suggestions were made by Edward Allen, Toni Braun, John Cochrane, George Constantinides, Martin Eichenbaum, Ayman Hindy, Chi-fu Huang, Narayana Kocherlakota, Robert Lucas, Robin Lumsdaine, Masao Ogaki, Chris Phelan, Paul Romer, Karl Snow, Grace Tsiang, Kei-Mu Yi and and Duke, Harvard, Carnegie-Mellon, participants of workshops at Chicago, M.I.T., Minnesota, Northwestern, Princeton, Queen's, Rochester, Stanford, would especially like to I Toronto, Western Ontario, Wharton and Yale. thank three referees for their very detailed and helpful comments and suggestions and Lars Peter Hansen for his many suggestions and his constant gratefully acknowledge financial support from the encouragement. I Greentree Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation This and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. paper is a revised version of my University of Chicago Ph.D. dissertation. Any errors are of course my own. 1. Introduction There has been an extensive amount of work examining whether aggregate consumption expenditures are consistent with the restrictions implied by the income permanent hypothesis. A strict interpretation of this hypothesis predicts that aggregate consumption should be a martingale as shown by Hall (1978). have found example, implication has been questioned by a number of authors who This that Flavin consumption changes (1981), Hayashi predictable are and (1982) Hall over time (see, Mishkin and for (1982)). However recently Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991) have argued that there is little evidence against the martingale hypothesis using aggregate consumption data, once the fact that the data is time averaged is taken into account. If consumers frequently, so are that much finer interval assumed make to consumption the martingale hypothesis applies to decisions consumption at a time averaging of than observed data, the data implies that consumption changes will be predictable. assumptions, averaging time data the implies that quite consumption Under further the first-order autocorrelation in consumption changes should be 0.25 and information lagged two periods should not be useful Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall remarkably consistent with (1991) quarterly consumption predicting in changes. show that these implications are observations of seasonally-adjusted consumption so that rejections of the martingale hypothesis could be due to the fact that the data is time averaged. are sensitive to the data used in the However, analysis. I show that these results In particular, monthly observations of seasonally adjusted consumption and quarterly observations of seasonally unadjusted consumption are at odds with the martingale model, even with an account for the effects of time averaging of the data. The martingale hypothesis and its that exploited are Christiano, by implications for time averaged data Eichenbaum and Marshall are (1991), derived under the strong assumption that there is a representative consumer with time-separable preferences over consumption in continuous-time. preferences about assumption investigations of In a has effects of the time continuous-time environment separable is from far the preferences over consumption at one preferences are time-nonseparable this paper, preferences, the the most in consumption data assumption that preferences are it implies that to I 2 . show that with the introduction of time-nonseparable different is averaged over be show that dynamics of monthly quarterly and seasonally This occurs because over longer periods of time, the model's However as implications consistent with a model of time-separable preferences. the same time individual's an short periods of time time nonseparabilities are very important. tend . instant are unaffected by consumption adjusted consumption data can be easily explained. the data other In this setting it seems more reasonable to assume that the instant before. In imposed averaging of since appealing been also This type of model is I also consistent with seasonally unadjusted consumption data. In conducting permanent income this study, model I in time-nonseparable preferences. derived under very general that without identify result, the I further which the representative forms of several the consumer has Although the implications of the model are time-nonseparable preferences, restrictions upon preferences preferences of examine develop a continuous-time linear-quadratic it is not possible consumer using discrete-time data. specific forms of time show I As nonseparabilities to a in preferences. that form first The consumption is substitutable over time or Discrete-time durable. are considered Hansen by and (1987) Constantinides Heal Singleton Ogaki (1988), is model a of Sundaresan and of persistence implies that consumption (1989). complementary is model of The have Hansen and second like (1991), notion the consumption goods the type example. habit captures Eichenbaum (1985), for that this Detemple and Zapatero (1990), (1973) versions and Dunn nonseparability and preferences time-nonseparable of form those Novales This preference over time. been (1990), time of studied (1990), by Ryder specification Using seasonally adjusted observations of consumption expenditures on nondurables and services, I show that there is strong evidence for the model where consumption is substitutable over time (or that the consumption goods are durable) and that this model reconciles the conflict between monthly and quarterly consumption Further, data. I find evidence no for habit persistence alone, however there is some weak evidence for habit persistence if habit is assumed to develop over the durable nature of the consumption goods. show that there is also flow of consumption is substitutable over time. the Using seasonally unadjusted data evidence very strong services created by Also in favor there is of a model I where evidence for habit but again the durable nature of the persistence at seasonally frequencies, goods must be mode ted. I also apply the model to durable goods expenditures. Using this data there is strong evidence for habit persistence that forms over the flow of services from the durable goods. explain some of more the I examine whether the model can help to durable goods puzzles discussed by Mankiw recently by Caballero (1990). I show that the model (1982) and provides only a partial resolution of these puzzles. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. the model the seasonally-unadjusted quarterly section III develop I I inconsistent with monthly seasonally-adjusted data is data. I model a of discuss also results could be due solely to measurement error In examine I implications of the martingale hypothesis for time averaged data and show that and In section II the in whether these consumption data. time-nonseparable preferences capital accumulation and develop its implications for consumption. I and show that it is necessary to focus upon several specific parametric forms of the preferences. section IV In time-nonseparable preferences these examples discuss the implications of two examples of that to notions capture In section V complementarity over time. applying I consumption I substitution of and present the empirical results of Section data. VI concludes the paper. II. Time-Separable Preferences and Time Aggregation Consider a situation in which there is a representative consumer with time-separable preferences over consumption facing a constant interest rate that equals the consumer's pure rate of time preference. equation euler consumption is for a the consumer martingale implies (see, for that example the model implies that consumption, case the the marginal utility of Hall (1978)). Under the with a constant bliss further restriction that preferences are quadratic, point, In this {c( t ) : t=0, 1 , 2, ...}, is a martingale. A typical way to observations of c(t+l) investigate - c(t) this sharp prediction is to construct using consumption data observed at quarterly c(t)l?(t)} = - where f(t) denotes the consumer's information set at time t Hall example, for (see. then conducted of whether £{c(t+l) A test (for example). frequencies is Flavin (1978), and (1981) Hayashi A (1982)). potential problem with this approach (as emphasized recently by Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991)) that the available aggregate consumption is data consists of observations of consumption expenditures over a period. words, other time at consumption observed t is In c(T)dT. c(t)=J" If consumption within the observation interval is not viewed by the consumer as being perfectly substitutable, then the use of this time averaged data could lead to spurious rejections of the martingale implication for consumption. that fact The {c(t )-c(t-l ) t=0,l,2, : problem could hypothesis for ...} help to explain aggregate data follows autocorrelation first-order with consumption the first-order a of some the consumption. moving This 0.25. of averaged time is is average of that process aggregation temporal rejections This implies martingale the exactly what Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991) find using quarterly data. Tests of the Model Using Seasonally Adjusted Consumption Data Il.d Following Flavin (1982) and Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991), I assume that trend parameter model: c(t) applies model the consumption where detrended to the is /j Table 2.1 gives maximum likelihood estimates of the MA(1) . - = c(t-l) 9 c(t) + 6 c(t-l). where £{c(t)^} = 1 and 1 £{c(t)c(T)} c(t-l), R(l), estimates consumption MA(1) = model are for is T t. restricted reported expenditures with 9 * for on The to autocorrelation first-order 0.25 so that the 9 quarterly per capita nondurables and services. implies 9 seasonally unrestricted are given in table 2.2. Estimates In c(t) of - The . adjusted of the both tables estimated parameters are reported for the period 1952,1 to 1986,4 and 1959,1 The latter subsample was used since this matches the period of 1986,4. to the Likelihood ratio monthly data. tests of restriction the that = R(l) 0.25 yield probability values of 0.73 for the data set from 1952,1 to 1986,4 and 0.78 for data from 1959,1 This occurs because R{1) 1986,4. to is very close to 0.25 in each case. information lagged two periods should not The model also implies that be useful in predicting z(t-2) a set is of the consumption change instruments c(t)-c(t-l) to have a constant mean value £{[c(t)-c(t-l)-m]z(t-2)} = (2.1) zU) Letting a test [ where condition 1 , c( t-2)-c( t-3) restriction the of function = (2.1) the (2.1) of if allowing the model implies that: of m, . using estimated is then true, is and 3^(t), can be performed using m particular, In c( t-3)-c( t-4) ,c( t-4)-c( t-5) (2.1) parameter If . , members are that today. the , c( t-5)-c( t-6) the GMM ' , GMM criterion and minimized ] the GMM moment criterion function is (asymptotically) a chi-squared random variable with 4 degrees of freedom. The resulting P-value of the implied test of (2.1) is 0.065 for the data set from 1952,1 to 1986.4 and 0.083 for the data set from 1959,1 to 1986,4. As restriction a result, (2.1). there This is substantial not indicates that the evidence against time-separable model the is reasonably consistent with quarterly seasonally adjusted consumption, due to the fact that the data is time averaged. This success was noted by Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991). Now consider monthly measures seasonally of expenditures on nondurables plus services 7 . If adjusted consumption the only difficulty with the model time-separable that is results should be robust 0.25 is time averaged, time averaging. moving average the restriction on the Table parameters using R(l) of monthly A likelihood ratio test of the restriction yields a probability value data. of the intervals of and trend the with and without c(t)-c(t-l) consumption data different to estimates of reports 2.3 the essentially As zero. result, a model the is inconsistent with the Q monthly data This occurs because the first order autocorrelation of . the first difference of monthly consumption is -0.188 with a standard error of 0.052, which is significantly negative. Tests II. B. of Model the Using Quarterly Seasonally Unadjusted construct seasonally Consumption Data process The adjustment seasonal of used to adjusted data changes the correlation structure of the observed series in a way fundamental (for a discussion of (1986) and Person and Harvey (1991)). part of the success of quarterly data 0.25. It is is due the to this issue fact for example, Miron This is a serious issue since a large time-separable model the see, that R(l) is with seasonally adjusted estimated important to examine whether this result to be close to sensitive to the is process of seasonal adjustment. As a differences first of pass, consider searsonally dummies removed^. the unadjusted autocorrelation consumption with structure trend first seasonal Table 2.4 gives estimates of the autocorrelation function using quarterly expenditures on nondurables and services important things to notice. data, and of . There are two First, unlike the seasonally adjusted quarterly the first-order autocorrelation is not close different manner of accounting for seasonality, to 0.25. Hence with a the time-separable model is consistent with the data, not the fourth the autocorrelation value at that is note significantly positive seasonality in the data and some addition must be made to the the of lag Second, This indicates that the use of seasonal dummies does not remove and large. all even at quarterly frequencies. model to account for this behavior. 11 Measurement Error I.e. Before turning to a model based explanation of these different results, problem the measurement of Consider addressed. a in the consumption which the discrete-time error world in series must version be of the time-separable model is correct at monthly frequencies, but the monthly data is with contaminated measurement i.i.d. error. In this observed case, consumption differences at monthly frequencies would be given by: 12 c(t) - c(t-l) = u (t) + u (t) - u (t-1 (2.2) is the model error and u where u in measurement error Notice . this case consumption differences are negatively correlated over Time averaging from monthly to quarterly frequencies eliminates much time. of is the i.i.d. 2 1 that 2 the effect of measurement error and hence would explain the different results using seasonally adjusted monthly and quarterly data. However, not an i.i.d. very reasonable due model for measurement error to the methods used to in consumption data construct the data. is This point has been stressed in several recent papers Bell and Wilcox (1991) and Wilcox (1991). studies. I will provide a brief summary of the conclusions from these A detailed discussion Wilcox (1991) and Wilcox (1991). of these issues can be found in Bell and The measure of aggregate consumption used consumption expenditures National Product and Income nondurables on Accounts. Bureau constructed by Commerce. An consumption expenditures the important This Economic of ingredient in constructed by the Census Bureau. taken measure Analysis in is from estimates In estimating the U.S. consumption is the Department of of retail personal of construction the monthly the is services and paper this in of personal retail sales the Census sales, Bureau receives reports of retail sales from all large retail establishments every month and from a sample of small retail establishments. companies report in rotating panels every three months. The small The sampling error Induced by this sampling scheme is an important source of measurement error. This sampling error is correlated over time for two reasons. the small retail establishments reporting each month report both First, their current month's sales and their sales for the previous month. The final estimate of a month's retail sales reported by the Census Bureau are based on reported sales the reporting the following month. strong autocorrelation Given their in the by the panel Census the that month Due to the reporting overlap, sampling error from one month information on the methods used establishments, of Bureau has in and panel the there is very the to next. sampling the small attempted to retail measure the autocorrelation in the sampling error induced by the two month reporting of each panel. (see Bell Not surprisingly, and Wilcox sampling error is the (1991)). quite close to one second source of autocorrelation in the the A autocorrelation use of a rotating panel. is This Induces correlation between the current month's sampling error and the sampling error 3 months back. As discussed by Bell and Wilcox (1991), the strong positive autocorrelation implies that by induced sampling the practices first-order autocorrelation in c(t) the presence measurement result, measurement error in is (2.2), explain cannot likely the first-differences of monthly consumption. explain structure correlation the of be to negative c(t-l), very due Bureau small. correlation the to As a the of Further measurement error cannot unadjusted seasonally of - Census the quarterly consumption data. A Model with Time-Nonseparable Preferences III. A problem with the model of preferences that underlies for {c(t) - c(t-l time-separable ) : t=0, 1 ...} ,2, preferences the is over assumption that consumption the MA(1) model the continuous in consumer has This time. assumption implies that the consumer's preferences over consumption at time t are unaffected (through preferences) by consumption in the instant before time t. A reasonable alternative this model to is to allow preferences to be time-nonseparable. In this section, capital accumulation time-averaged I present a model of time-nonseparable preferences and and derive consumption. its implications nonseparability Time for observations of preferences is in introduced by specifying a mapping from current and past consumption goods into a process called services. The representative consumer have time-separable preferences over services. services into is a type of is assumed to The mapping from consumption Gorman-Lancaster 12 technology in which the consumption goods are viewed as bundled claims to characteristics that the consumer cares about I develop the implications of 10 the model under a very general specification of preferences. show discrete-time data will preferences, This I implies preferences that development of the model that reveal not must be further restriction on preference the restricted ignore several I without some in technical structure. way. In the The appendix issues. provides a discussion of these issues. Preferences Over Services and Consumption III. A. The preferences of the consumer are assumed to be time separable over a stochastic process, s={s( t ) : Ost<oo} , called services. representative The consumer evaluates s via the utility function: U(s) s -(l/2)£{X"exp(-pt)(s(t)-b(t))^dt>, p (3.1) where {b(t) Oit<oo} : is a deterministic process describing movement and p is the pure rate of time preference element of the space £{/ exp(-pt)s(t) dt} < > feasible of 00 . services Under the 14 I the bliss assume that each restricted is further deterministic bliss point satisfies / exp(-pt)b(t) dt assumption < oo, point such that that: the the preferences of the consumer are well defined. Time nonseparability in the consumer's preferences over consumption is introduced by making s(t) a linear function of current and past consumption given by a convolu4:ion between a nonrandom distribution g and consumption cs{c(t):Ost<co>^^: s(t) = g»c(t) (3.2) where * denotes convolution of two distributions. 11 To insure that s(t) is a function of current and past consumption, g is assumed to be one sided with we ight on only convolution however in the (3.2) real given the is For example, integration. by For line. integral: many s(t) = examples, the J g(T)c( t-T)dT, interpretable using standard notions of need not be integral this nonnegative the nonseparability could involve a comparison of current consumption to past consumption as in a model of habit persistence. g would include a dirac delta function. In this case, III. Capital Accumulation and Equilibrium B. The model is completed by assuming that there is a capital accumulation technology that allows the transfer of consumption over time at the constant instantaneous rate p: Dk(t) = pk(t) + e(t) (3.3) where kit) is - c(t), k(0) given, the level of the capital stock at time condition and e(t) is the endowment t, k{0) process of the consumption good. endowment process is also assumed to satisfy £{J exp(-pt)e(t) dt} assumption and the restrictions on c discussed in the appendix, £{J"°°exp(-pt)k(t)^dt} Hansen (1990), (1987), < CD. As in Christiano, Heaton and Sargent Hansen, this assumption is used initial is an < m. The This implies that Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991), (1991), and Hansen and Sargent instead of a nonnegativity restriction on the capital stock which would make the model analytically intractable. Following Hansen (1987) and Sargent (1987) of return on capital is equal to the pure I am assuming that the rate rate of time preference. This restriction on the real rate of interest was also imposed by Flavin (1981) and Hayashi (1982). Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991) discuss this 12 J assumption in the context of the time separable version of this model. show assumption this that is necessary for the model consumption and capital in a deterministic world. directly to consumption when model, this positive is restrictions on g, as I in applied deterministic a These results carry over services. to positive imply to They The world restriction imposes set a that of will discuss in section IV. The problem facing the consumer is to maximize the objective function subject to the mapping (3.1) (3.3), (3.2) and the capital accumulation technology The Lagrangian for this problem is given by: by the choice of c(t). 1 = -£-|j" exp(-pt)](l/2)[g*c(t) (3.4) - bU)f { - A(t)U(t) - k(0) - pJ"*'k(T)dT - j''e(T)dT + /c(T)dT I ^ L ° where X{t) is the value of the Lagrange multiplier at time The tiO, first-order conditions for the choice of kit) ^ 1 t. and c(t) for each are given by: (3.5) £i-g^»[g*c(t) - b(t)];?(t)l + E|j-"exp(-pt)X(t+T)dT;3^(t)|- = 0, and (3.6) where g ^3^^ A(t) - pE\s'^exp{-pT)\{t+T]dx\^U)}- = 0. is given by: gf ^ j exp(pt)g(-t) if t i otherwise Although it is not possible to completely characterize the solution to this 13 problem for general forms of a g, simple implication for services can be derived. Notice that EW'lg'cit) The good consumption of gives (3.8) time at A(t) is a martingale, that so b(t)];?(t)| = A(t)/p. - side left that Also (3.5) and (3.6) imply that f{A(t+T) ;?(t)> = A(t). (3.8) implies (3.6) As t. the marginal result, a utility of a unit the implies model of the that the marginal utility of consumption is a martingale and: - g'"*[s(t+T) (3.9) where £{u( t+x) ^( 1 t ) } b(t+T)] = g''*[s(t) - bit)] + U(t+T). T>0 where and = I have substituted in . the fact that g*c(t)=s(t). Under assumptions reasonable on g one-sided forward looking inverse denoted g s(t+T) (3.10) f Since t)( t+x) 13- ( t martingale. and I = } I s(t) forward - I.e. looking, b(t) for Applying g . 2 } = 2 cr to g has a (3.9) yields: + g'"*u(t+T) (3.10) x>0, appendix), so implies that s-b is denote the time derivative of (s-b)[t] as: assume that £{D^(t) 11 - b(t) b(t+T) = s(t) is g ) - the (see that £{s(t+T) a continuous-time D(s-b)[t] = D^(t) dt. Implications for Time- Averaged Consumption The assumption that g f has a one-sided inverse also implies that there 14 exists a one-sided inverse of g, g , so that the convolution in (3.2) can be inverted to yield a mapping from services to consumption: g^»s = c. (3.11) Recalling that D[s-b]{t) D^(t), = (3.10) and (3.11) imply the following representation for the first difference of consumption: (3.12) Observed c(t) - c(t-l) = g^*/^_jD?(T) consumption, {c(t): + g^*[b(t) - b(t-l)]. t=0,l,2, consumption expenditures over a unit of time: Averaging over (3.12) a unit of consists ...}, c(t) = J time, we of averages of c(t). obtain the following general representation for observed consumption: (3.13) c(t) - c(t-l) = g^*w{t) where wit) = S^ t-l = S^ J"^ T-l + g^«{J^_^[b(T) an MA(1) is a b(T-l)]dT> DC(r)dT (t-T)DC(T) + J-''"^T-t + 2)D?(T) t-2 t-l Notice that w(t) - time-averaged martingale difference so that w(t) has structure" with first-order autocorrelation of difference in consumption is obtained by "filtering" w(t) through - c(t-l) g^. 0.25. + [b(t) The first - b(t-l)] In the special case where c(t) = sit) and b is a constant, = w(t) and (3.13) c(t) reduces to the MA(1) model examined in section II. 15 . Identification of g with Sampled Data III.D. identification issues There are several using of the bliss point b(t) in (3.13). If Inferences about g The first involves the presence and observed consumption data. (3. 13) in making an unobservable stochastic process then the dynamics of consumption for the bliss point were added to be model, could be completely explained by this bliss point movement and the mapping g^ in is to minimize the role of unobservables and to try to explain consumption based upon the mapping g As a result, . in a deterministic fashion. nonseparabilities in I assume that the bliss point moves One way to interpret the introduction of time preferences movements to observable variables. is possible The strategy taken here could be set to the identity mapping. (3.13) to give an economic as is attempt an link to bliss point An advantage to this approach is that it interpretation to the required bliss point movement Even with the strong assumption that the bliss point is deterministic, there is a further identification issue. then (3.13) - let b(t) be constant, implies a continuous-time moving average representation for c(t) c(t-l) of the form: (3.14) c(t) - c(t-l) = g^«DC(t). where g" = h*g^, h(t) = otherwise. If the functions g t for te[0,l], a continuous and g to identify the h(t) = 2 - record of c(t) t for t €[1,2] and h(t) = c(t-l) were available, - then could be exactly identified. With the discrete-time data, is To see this, {c(t )-c(t-l discrete-time moving time-averaged consumption differences: 16 ): t=0, 1 ,...}, the best we can do average representation for . c(t) - c(t-l) = I " G^(J)c(t-j) (3.15) where £{c(t)^> = to map and £{c(t)c(T)> = 1 sequence the {G possible (3.15) identify to We would like to be able describes that g Of course without further restriction time-nonseparabilities. be t. function the to } for x * completely the function will not it However, g*^. the note that is exactly the relationship that arises in a discrete-time version of the model in which the decision interval of the consumer is set equal to the interval of data. the discrete-time the In model, reflects the discrete- time time-nonseparabilities in Marcet (1991) function of g the finite g (t-2), g (t-3) of the L 2 the sequence To construct this mapping, . all set g (t-1), c how shows linear projection operator. g (t) at many values of x. Note that a(t) function constructed is let A be the closure - is of the Projig G(j) preferences. {G (j)> combinations Let a = g the lA) functions (in L of as 2 ) t€lR a of : where Proj denotes in general a convolution of Marcet (1991) shows that G (j) is given by: jV(t+j)a(t)dt G (j) = r a(t)^dt = -a»g''(j)/J'"a(t)^dt ° (3.16) ~^ = -a*h»g^(J). where a( t ) = a(-t If g'^(j) ) were an average of the function g^(t) for values of t near j, then we would expect the discrete-time interpretation to be reasonably good. However (3.16) implies that the g''(j) 17 is an average of the function g^(t) for values all about of t structure the positively are would interpretation discrete-time lead correlated be consider positive is over the observed since The time. preferences that inferences poor to example, For G (1) case, this In differences consumption general, in preferences. of model. time-separable will, and G (j) are time nonseparable, which they are not. will not in general allow us to obtain a correct Since the function G economic forms g^ of that I intuitive summarize continuous-time form of g In . that simple in allow for the estimation of the I outline two basic forms capture notions of In section V, complementarity over time. several time-nonseparability of the next section time-nonseparable preferences upon focus next types These restricted forms of g preferences. of preferences, interpretation of I substitution and show that these preferences do a good job in explaining the difficulties with the time additive model that pointed out in section IV. Two Polar Cases II. of Time-Nonseparabilities Two specific examples of time-nonseparabilities are of first example time. In captures the second Throughout this section, IV. A. In the preferences I the notion consumption example I consumption that is is interest. The substitutable over complementary over time. assume that the bliss point is constant. Exponent ial Depreciat ion continuous-time are time substitutable from one model of separable would instant the to 18 assumption section III, the imply that consumption next, so that the is that not consumer cares a great deal about timing exact the consumption. of natural A way to introduce time-nonseparable preferences is to assume that consumption can be easily substituted over periods short time of or preferences that continuous in the dimension of the timing of consumption. restriction preferences on in suggested by Huang and Kreps continuous-time (1987) models This intuitive recently has and Hindy and Huang are been Another (1991). reason to consider preference structures where consumption can be readily substituted over short periods of time is that most consumption goods are relatively durable. series examined in In particular, section II the nondurables and services consumption includes several components that should be thought of as durable (for example clothing and shoes). let g be given by: To capture these ideas, fO if t < g(t) = (4.1) , \ Iexp(5t) The fact easily that g(t) substituted requirement of is t positive over Huang where 5 < 0. iO time t^O, implies and the model satisfies Hindy and Kreps and consumption can be for (1987) that the Huang continuity The (1991). consumption good can also be interpreted as a durable good where 5 governs the depreciation of the good. To apply the results of section III, found. the The Laplace transform of g Laplace transform of g. In Laplace transform of the operator the mapping g is given by g (<) this case (D-5). g^(<) c(t) = Ds(t) - 5s(t) 19 (3.13) = 1/giC,) where C, As a result, section III that s(t) is a martingale implies that: (4.2) = of - 5 the , which must be g(.C,) is is the implication of = D?(t) - 5s(t). Note that the goods process has a component that is the time derivative of a As martingale. a result, process consumption the not is 17 stochastic process but is a generalized stochastic process. can tolerate very erratic consumption in this model, a standard The consumer because the consumer "consumes" a weighted average of past consumption that is relatively smooth. In (4.1), implies that services are constant over time. the model consumption is also constant over time and when consumption is positive. the In a deterministic world, is restricted to be less than 0. 6 model < through 1 of 4 this situation implies that (4.2) 0, the assumption that Further, assumptions satisfies 6 In 5 the implies < appendix that that are required to apply the results of section III. Using (3.13) the exponential depreciation model implies that: c(t) - c(t-l) = (D-5)w(t) (4.3) = J-^l-5T)DC(t-T) - X^[l+5(l-T)]DC(t-l-T) As in consumption time-separable the follow an MA(1). first case, In this autocorrelation value need not be 0.25 even positive. . . in however, the the time-averaged first-order time-separable case) nor The first-order autocorrelation of the first differences in R(l) = : ^'^^ 2 + R(l) case in .18 consumption is (4.4) (as differences is plotted " ^ (2/3)5^ in Figure 1. Note that as 5 goes to 20 -oo, the value of R(l) goes 0.25 to since, as 5 is driven to the -oo, consumption good instantly perishable and preferences are time separable. if 5 = -/6 = (a becomes Notice also that half life of 0.28 periods for the consumption good) then R(l) and a discrete-time martingale model would fit the consumption data. This is a further example of the identification problem discussed in section III.D. IV. B. Habit Persistence Suppose that the consumer cares about the level of consumption today relative to an average of past consumption so that the consumer develops an acceptable level of consumption over time. has been studied, for example, Habit persistence of this form Constantinides by Detemple (1990), Zapatero (1991), Novales (1990), Pollack (1970), Ryder and Heal Sundaresan Following (1989). Constantinides (1990) (1973), model I and and habit persistence by assuming that s(t) is of the form: (4.5) s(t) = c(t) - a(.-7)S exp(rT)c(t-T)dT, y<0, 0<a<l (0,00) Note that the term (-r)J" exp(3'T)c( t-T)dT is a weighted average of past consumption, and a gives the proportion of this average that is compared to current consumption to arrive at the level of services today. model of exponential depreciation, consumption is complementary over time. In this example, (4.6) g = A - g is given by: ttT} 21 habit persistence Unlike the implies that . where A is the dirac delta function and if , (4.7) t given by: is tj i T7(t) = expiyt) t > The Laplace transform of g in the case is: that g^iC,) = 1/giC,) the operator (4.8) = [D-'jr]/ [D- D[c(t) - lC,-y]/[C,-il-a)y] (l-a)y] . g(C) = [C,-{l-a.)y]/[C,-y] which is the Laplace , so transform of Using (3.13) this implies that: c(t-l)] = (l-a)y[c(t) - c(t-l)] - + J"^(l-9'T)DC(t-T) J'^[l+y(l-T)]DC(t-l-T) . This continuous-time autoregressive model for c(t) - c(t-l) implies that the discrete-time observations {c( t )-c( t-1 model where Independent the of the autoregressive effects of ) t : =0,1,2, parameter time-averaging ...} satisfy an ARMA(1,2) is given by the data, habit induces smoothness into consumption in the sense that of consumption is positively autocorrelated time-averaged reinforces this effect. depreciation, 19 Also, the habit persistence model exp[ ( l-a)^] persistence the first difference The fact that consumption is . unlike the case of exponential implies higher order dynamics for consumption than the time-separable model. To satisfy the assumptions of the appendix, the parameters of the habit persistence model must be restricted such that y<p/Z and y ={\-a)Tr<p/2. (4.5) these parameters are further restricted for two reasons. world of certainty, s is constant (at level t is given by: 22 s, say) First In in a and consumption at time c(t) = iexp(y t) - (4.9) )[exp{y (y/^- - t) l]Vs. • Notice that if y<0. If = y positive (for 3^ tends to then c(t) 0, (by setting a = large only if t) • approximately 3'<0. If = expif 20 t = consumption 1, grows large For ) t, c(t) is to be this • and r >0 implies that y linearly geometrically at the rate y for [a/(a-l ]s. ) the appendix is satisfied as long as y <p/2, 3 of which is again jt) _ • = positive only if is - s(l then, > r - • expiy tj(l-y/y )s (y/y )s which then c(t) 1), positive, a must be large that one a - » < when and < ail. When consumption grows which allows a > 1, Assumption 0. This type of explosive consumption path under . extreme habit persistence has been emphasized by Becker and Murphy (1988). the growth support To consumption, in consumption since the capital stock at time k(t) = J'"exp(-pT)c(t+T)dT (4.10) When the the endowment / exp(-pT)c(t+T)dT - e/p, stock grows along with is given by: t X°°exp(-pT)e( t+T)dT - over constant is capital the time level the at stock that the capital capital and consumption so . grows e, k(t) along = with consumption. restriction The deterministic world that is consistent with a > as 1 However in this situation if there is an initial model, they will not die out when a model the , - problem empirically. The > 1 . 23 long as level of positive y is in a negative. services in the and it would be difficult to analyze assumption that 21 are a < 1 in (4.5) avoids this . V. Empirical Results with Time-Nonseparable Preferences section this In persistence habit and depreciation results the report I models some must account made be Eichenbaum and Marshall Following Christiano, in assume I , and these consumption 22 (1991) adjusted to estimate In order trend the for exponential the seasonally to seasonally unadjusted consumption expenditures. models fitting of data. that the « model applies to detrended services sit) s (t) is the by assuming Given that trend exp(jit). is ji bliss the and > /i This assumption can be t. follows point the geometric mappings from consumption to services are the trending consumption c parameter that where exp(-jit)s (t) trending level of services at time directly modeled linear, = inherits (t) estimated along with the the rest trend exp((it). of the trend The parameters each for model Seasonal ly Adjusted Expenditures on Nondurables and Services V.A. The exponential depreciation model implies that R(l) is negative if < Vs (see so (4.4)), differences that the model monthly of becomes more negative, fact that first the consumption R(l) investigate autocorrelated. To parameterize moving the depreciation model '^ (see consistent with the fact that first is negatively are autocorrelated. becomes positive which would differences average (4.3)) quarterly of process implied - = c(t-l) are by the model, exponential the + 5 positively depreciation ec(t) As then explain consumption exponential the as c(t) |5| ec(t-l). This 1 MA(1) model can then be parameterized down the parameter 6 in terms of G and 5, where 5 through its affect on R(l) given in (4.4). gives maximum-likelihood estimates of the MA(1) 24 ties Table 5.1 model using the seasonally adjusted monthly expenditures on nondurables and services. value of 5 is -1.36, The estimated implying that the consumption goods have a half-life of 0.51 months. If a quarter is used as the basic time interval, the value of by the monthly estimation is 3*(-1.358) = -4.07. implied 5 A likelihood ratio test of of this restriction on the quarterly data versus an unrestricted MA(1) model gives a P-value of 0.101 for the data from 1952,1 to 1986,4 and a P-value of 0.281 the data from for 1959,1 to 1986,4. As a result, neither data set rejects this restriction at the 10% significance level and the monthly and quarterly first-order autocorrelation values can be reconciled with exponential depreciation model. simple a The exponential depreciation model fits the first-order negative correlation in monthly consumption differences and time averaging the data to quarterly frequencies implies a model consistent with the quarterly data. Maximum likelihood estimation 23 of the habit-persistence model using the quarterly consumption series yielded parameter estimates of a that were not significantly different differences in from persistence Habit zero. implies consumption are positively correlated over aspect of the data is well accounted for by the fact first but time, this the consumption the habit persistence model In fitting data is time averaged. that that to monthly data the model did very poorly since the monthly data requires a model that induces negative co.rrelation in the first difference of consumption. The nonseparability that people develop a the fact that g(t) instant to specify the level is not substitutable persistence model 25 the notion However implies that consumption from one > t captures consumption over time. of acceptable is negative for the next habit induced by habit persistence is 24 . to A potentially better way to first define an intermediate denoted service process, which s, captures the fact that consumption is durable or that consumption can be substituted over short periods of time. The consumer is then assumed to develop habit over the intermediate services process. The intermediate service process is generated according to: sit) = j"exp(5T)c(t-T)dT, 5 (5.1) Again, < . habit persistence is modeled using (4.5), except that habit develops over s instead of consumption directly: This model nests the exponential depreciation model persistence effects to develop much more slowly. as habit persistence depreciation (5 with close to autocorrelation of c(t) depreciation, - 0<a<l y<0, s(t) = s(t) - a(-3-)X°°exp(yT)s (t-T)dT, (5.2) exponential zero) the c(t-l) is I and slow For implies negative. the habit will refer to this model depreciation. model allows that Further, of first-order the for rates low rates the model satisfies the requirement of Huang and Kreps of (1987) and Hindy and Huang (1991) that consumption be easily substitutable from one instant to the next. As 5 is driven to -oo, the model approaches the habit * persistence model. Table 5.2 reports results of the estimation of with exponential depreciation model using monthly data 5.2 to table 5.1 function in notice that adding the there habit is some persistence depreciation model. 26 the 25 persistence In comparing table . improvement effects habit to in the the likelihood exponential . formal A test the of exponential depreciation model habit persistence with exponential depreciation model, When a = for test the in the parameter y is not likelihood ratio test relative to the test of a = is a 0. identified and the regularity conditions break down. Davies (1977) has suggested a this situation where the test statistic is found by evaluating the likelihood statistic ratio at all supremum of the resulting values. possible values of y taking and the A lower bound on the P-value of this test can be found by using a chi-square distribution with one degree of freedom and the likelihood ratio statistic based upon the results of tables 5.1 and lower This 5.2. persistence to bound is 0.067. exponential the As a result, depreciation the model addition does not of result habit in a dramatic improvement in the fit of the model Table 5.3 reports estimated half-life values for the exponential depreciation and habit-persistence effects using the parameter estimates of table 5.2. The half-life of the habit persistence effect is estimated to be relatively large possibly reflecting longer-run habit formation, which seems reasonable. However, the half-life is not precisely estimated. It seems that the degree of habit persistence is difficult to measure with this data set In sum, there depreciation model . is strong evidence in favor of the exponential There is some weak evidence for habit persistence in conjunction with the exponential depreciation model. The lack of evidence for habit persistence alone is due to the fact that the consumption data is time averaged and this explains the persistence in the first difference of consumption that the habit persistence model predicts. 27 Seasonally Adjusted Expenditures on Durables V.B. examining time-nonseparable preferences In Table goods. durable expenditures on exponential depreciation reports 5.4 consider to estimates of seasonally-adjusted using model natural is it the monthly Notice that the estimated value of 5 is in fact expenditures on durables. more negative than the estimate using nondurables and services (table 5.1) which implies that the durable goods are less durable than nondurables and The half-life of the durable good implied by this estimate of 5 services. months which seems very unreasonable for durable goods. is 0.42 was first discussed by Mankiw this puzzle time they account since averaged (1982). raises which for The results of the fact first-order the that the This puzzle table 5.4 reinforce consumption data autocorrelation first the in is difference of consumption. The puzzle series. presence since habit of persistence habit Table persistence 5.5 reports induces estimates could principle in smoothness of the into explain consumption the persistence habit this with exponential depreciation model using the monthly expenditures on durables. Notice first that the log likelihood significantly persistence is added to the exponential depreciation model 5.4 and 5.5) so that there is much more evidence when improves in (compare favor of habit tables habit persistence using durable goods. Also notice that the estimate of 5 is much lower and the impli-ed half-life for the durable good is 1.50 months which is somewhat more reasonable, but still too small. The estimates reported in table 5.4 impose a set of restrictions on the corresponding model for quarterly data. In particular the implied quarterly values of 5 and j are three times the values reported in table 5.5 and the value of a is a third of the value reported 28 in table 5.5. A likelihood ratio test of these restrictions against an unrestricted habit persistence with exponential depreciation model using quarterly expenditures on durables results in a P-value of 0.087 for the data from 1952,1 for data the from 1959,1 to 1986,4. with As depreciation for nondurables and services, 1986,4 and 0.358 to model the the model of of exponential habit persistence with exponential depreciation is consistent with time averaging the monthly data to form the quarterly data. Cabal lero in durables (1990) has pointed out that there are higher order dynamics than that captured by the exponential depreciation model. The habit persistence with exponential depreciation model captures some of this evidenced as by the improvement likelihood the in function when persistence is added to the model, however the model does not do see To job. this consider table 5.6 which reports a habit complete likelihood ratio statistics and corresponding P-values of tests of the habit persistence with exponential depreciation model against higher order ARMA models with persistence ARMA(1,2) model exponential for c(t) - depreciation model Notice c(t-l)). that implies the models provide significant evidence against the model. be due to lumpy adjustment and other costs of a higher (the habit restricted order ARMA This could perhaps adjustment as argued, for example, by Caballero (1991). V.C. In Seasonally Unadjusted Expenditures on Nondurables and Services this section, 1 examine whether exponential depreciation model also consistent with the seasonally unadjusted data examined in section is II. Given the weak evidence for habit persistence found with seasonally adjusted expenditures on nondurables and services, I examine whether the seasonally unadjusted data provides more evidence for habit persistence. 29 As noted in section I the seasonal pattern of consumption requires II, the models of section III that and IV be part of the model for seasonals that I modified in some way. The first use is formed by assuming that the bliss point follows a deterministic seasonal pattern which induces an exact pattern seasonal consumption. in Seasonal bliss movement point used in a similar way by Miron (1986) and Person and Harvey (1991). continuous-time problem there since continuous-time function. I that is functions assume time continuous model that with is an being examined here dimensional infinite class an is of In the aliasing deterministic match any deterministic discrete-time that will the bliss point follows corresponding frequencies there been has a seasonal exactly to pattern the in seasonal frequencies of the observed data. Since the seasonally unadjusted data is quarterly, the bliss point is assumed to be governed by: (5.3) hU) where 6,6,8 == Zl {<t> and 6 cosi.inj/2)+IB,sin{tnj/2)} are constants. This model of b(t) and (3.13) imply that: :5.4) c(t) - c(t-l) = g^»w(t) + g •B(t: where B(t) = Y.I ia. [sin(t7rj/2) + sin({t-2)nj/Z)] -P [cosUnj/2 + cos( (t-2)Trj/2) = and where a J integers, 2a /tt J = and 8 J 2S /n. Note that ] } g *B(t), J can be represented using seasonal dummies. 30 observed at the In order to capture the durable nature of the goods and to capture the first-order autocorrelation noted negative intermediate service process s of (5.2). exponential depreciation model that table in As in I again use the the habit persistence with considered I 2.4, above, consumer the is assumed to compare the current level of s to an average of past intermediate services. this case In instead of letting the habit stock be a weighted average of all past consumption, assume that the habit stock is given by the level of the intermediate service process of exactly one year ago. In other words sit) is given by: s(t) = s(t) - as(t-4) (5.5) where the transform basic of time (D-5)/(l-aL*). ] which assumed is distribution the (^-6)/[l-aexp(-4<) period for g this Laplace the is to be a case quarter. given is transfer The by: g^(C) the of Laplace = operator As a result: c(t) - c(t-l) = J"^(l-5T)D^(t-T) - J'^[l+5(l-T)]DC(t-l-T) (5.6) (1 - aL*) (D-5)B(t) + (1 The representation given time-averaged consumption have - aL*) in (5.6) two moving-average with a first-order implies pieces. that The first of (5.6) is correct, then is seasonal-autoregressive second piece is a set of deterministic seasonal dummies. model seasonal adjustment differences first a of first-order structure. The Notice that if the removes some of the dynamics of consumption that are due to the preferences of the consumer and 31 applying model the to adjusted seasonally data inferences about the structure of preferences expenditures unadjusted lead . 29 of (5.6) nondurables on misleading to 28 Table 5.7 gives estimates of the parameters seasonally will and using quarterly services. A likelihood ratio test of a=0 results in a P-value of 0.01% so that there is strong evidence for the presence of habit persistence inclusion of seasonal dummies the confirms the findings in table 2.4 that This this case. in Notice that does not completely remove all seasonal effects. (5.6) implies that first-differences in consumption follow an ARMA(4,1) where all but the parameters autoregressive fourth-order are Estimation zero. an of unrestricted AFIMA(4,1) model for the random piece of the first difference in consumption yields a log likelihood value of test of the model given in (5.6) indicates that of This 0.184. 150.02. A likelihood ratio against this alternative yields a P-value model the doing is a reasonable job in representing the seasonally unadjusted consumption data. The estimated value of 5 in table 5.7 is much closer to zero than the value unadjusted data 0.38 is quarters Estimation of adjusted data. (5=-oo) seasonally adjusted data. with found results in a a versus The implied quarters 0.17 half-life using using seasonally model with just seasonal habit persistence value log-likelihood of restriction against the model with 5 unrestricted, Testing 140.61. this results in a P-value of 0.0002 for the likelihood ratio test. The seasonally unadjusted data at quarterly frequencies indicates that durability in goods the habit persistence 30 . is important and there is evidence seasonal The model with time-separable preferences does a very poor job in fitting this quarterly data set. In section V.A, against favor the for time-separable model and 32 in of the the evidence exponential depreciation model came in the form of negative first-order autocorrelation in monthly data Unfortunately, and the changing structure of monthly and quarterly data. Department the seasonally-unadjusted data, of so Commerce that does publish not corresponding the monthly, exercise with seasonally unadjusted data cannot be performed. VI. Concluding Remarks Time averaging of aggregate consumption data since an is important problem destroys the information structure implied by any economic model it and can lead to misleading analysis about the underlying economic structure. Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall taken into account, showed that once this problem is (1991) there is little evidence in quarterly data against martingale hypothesis for consumption. However there is great a deal the of evidence against the martingale hypothesis using monthly seasonally adjusted data and quarterly seasonally unadjusted data. In this paper quarterly I have shown that the changing structure of monthly and consumption expenditures on nondurables and services can be reconciled by a model in which consumption is substitutable over time, or in which the consumption goods are durable. The model of preferences is also sensible given the continuous-time perspective that time-averaged consumption data. The empirical I used to findings analyze support the the continuous-time theoretical developments of Huang and Kreps (1987) and Hindy and Huang (1991). In addition to this model of substitution over time, evidence for habit formation when habit flow of services created by the is durable 33 I found some weak modeled as developing over the nature of the goods. Using model durable goods on expenditures seasonally Quarterly preferences. of evidence further found I for this unadjusted type of consumption expenditures on nondurables and services provided stronger evidence for a model of preferences in which consumption is substltutable over time and in which there is habit formation at seasonal frequencies. analysis the general In paper the of implications has for investigations of the temporal aggregation Issue and models of preferences First in investigations of the effects of time averaging In other contexts. of the consumption data it is not appropriate to assume that preferences are Also the empirical results with seasonally-unadjusted data time separable. indicate that In addition to accounting for time averaging of the data, it process of is Important to whether examine results robust are the to seasonal adjustment. Second introduces shown have I serious a tlme-nonseparable that fact the that problem identification preferences to consumption data the time is fitting in models particular, In data. averaged of the spuriously be interpreted as being due to habit persistence in a discrete-time model. I smoothness found in weak consumption evidence for due habit to averaging time persistence could using seasonally consumption expenditures on nondurables and services because the fact that consumption data the is time averaged. I As adjusted accounted for a result, in fitting models of time nonseparable preferences using aggregate consumption data, the fact that the consumption data is time averaged should be taken into account. The analysis in this paper has two major drawbacks: constant exogenously given interest rate. that the linearity and a These assumptions were imposed so implications of the model for time averaged data could be easily 34 developed. paper to In Heaton (1991). an endowment I 'have extended some of economy where asset the analysis of this returns are endogenous and representative consumer's period utility is not quadratic (CRRA). I the have found implications about the structure of preferences similar to the results of this paper. However the model in Heaton (1991) assumes that endowments are exogenously given and makes strong assumptions on other dimensions. It are would be interesting to determine whether the results of this paper robust nonlinear example. to the introduction time-nonseparabilities of have endogenous been production. proposed by Abel Also (1990), more for An extension of the analysis of this to that class of preferences would also be interesting. Footnotes for example, Grossman, Melino and Shiller (1985), Hansen (1991), Litzenberger and Ronn (1986), Naik and Ronn (1987) (1988). See, Singleton Hall and and 2 See Huang and Kreps (1987) and Hindy and Huang (1991) for theoretical arguments in favor of time-nonseparable preferences in continuous-time models. 3 This result was originally derived by Working (1960). See section III and Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991) for a derivation of this result. 4 In section V," I discuss this assumption further. The mean m can be introduced by allowing differences in the bliss allow for this point of the consumer to be constant over time. I possibility so as to match the results reported in Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991). 35 For a detailed discussion For a discussion of GMM see Hansen (1982). Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991). see Christiano, performed here test of data to perform this GMM estimation consumption I used the the detrending In MA(1) estimation reported unrestricted in table 2.2. from estimate trend the ^Note that the quarterly and monthly data are consistent in the sense that quarterly averages of the monthly data yield the quarterly data used in the paper. p This fact was also noted by Ermini (1989). 9 In section V, I show that this is consistent with a model with a deterministic bliss point. time separable The trend value and seasonal dummies were removed using a likelihood In table function in which the residuals were assumed to be white noise. to 1986,4. 2.4, estimates are reported using the sample period 1959,1 The longer data set was Seasonally unadjusted data is available from 1946. not used because the simple trend model used in this paper could not account for what appears to be a dampening of the variance of the seasonal component This did not occur over the of the series over the longer time period. Modeling the change in the seasonal shorter time period used in this paper. behavior of the series is beyond the scope of this paper. This model also occurs in a situation where the bliss point in the quadratic preferences of the consumer is stochastic and i.i.d. over time discuss this issue further in Section III. I (see Sargent (1987)). 12 Unlike most analyses nonnegativity constraints. of Gorman-Lancaster technologies, I ignore 13 Discrete-time versions of this specification of preferences have been See, for example, Dunn and Singleton (1986), considered by many authors. Eichenbaum and Hansen (1990), Eichenbaum, Hansen and Richard (1987) and Hansen (1987). 14 The assumption that the preferences of the consumer can be represented This assumption with a quadratic utility function is made for convenience. accumulation described below with linear constraint on capital along the variables that be laws motion for the endogenous can implies linear of of the model for implications In particular, the easily analyzed. The quadratic time-averaged data can be studied without much difficulty. assumption for preferences could be viewed as an approximation to a different utility function. For a discussion of this approximation issue see, for example, Christiano (1990). 36 Notice that s(t) is a process that gives the contribution to services from consumption purchases from time forward. To simplify the exposition, have set initial conditions for services to zero. I The issue of initial conditions is discussed in the appendix. For a discussion of this result and a derivation of the representation for wit) see, for example, Grossman, Melino and Shiller (1987). 17 See Gel'fand and Vilenkin (1964) for a discussion of generalized stochastic processes. As it stands, this model does not directly fit within the framework of section III since consumption is not a standard stochastic However, with a simple modification the analysis of section III process. can be applied. The idea is to think of the consumer as choosing accumulated consumption at time t, where accumulated consumption is given by: c (t) = J c(T)dT. The mapping from consumption to services can be easily modified to be a mapping from accumulated consumption to services. interpret the capital accumulation problem integrate (3.3) over time to yield a law of motion for another capital stock where accumulated consumption is the control. This remapping of the problem is discussed further in Heaton (1989) and Hansen, Heaton and Sargent (1991). To 12 18 The — variance / (1+5(1-t)) dx and of of — c(t) c(t-l) - autocovariance the is is given given by by 1 -J" 17 S (1-5t) dx (l-5x) ( + l+5( 1-x) )dx (see Rozanov (1967)). 19 Sundaresan (1989) and Detemple and Zapatero (1991) investigate whether habit persistence results in smooth consumption in the sense that habit persistence may lower the volatility of consumption for a given volatility in the endowment process. 20 Assuming persistence. that a i so that we are considering a model of habit 21 In the estimation of the habit persistence model reported in section V found no evidence searched for values of a in an unrestricted manner. I for values of a > 1. I 22 Actually Christiano, Eichenbaum and Marshall (1991) follow a slightly The different strategy for the trend than the one used here section. does not affect the results presented here. difference is very minor and 23 and habit persistence with exponential persistence The habit depreciation models were fit using the frequency domain approximation to the likelihood function suggested by Hannan (1970). 24 This implies that the habit persistence model does not satisfy the continuity restriction of Huang and Kreps(1987) and Hindy and Huang(1991). 37 Maximum likelihood estimates of the habit persistence with exponential depreciation durability model for the two quarterly data sets yielded very marginal improvement in the likelihood function over the pure exponential As a result, I do not report the results here. depreciation model. ^^Gallant and Tauchen (1990) and Eichenbaum and Hansen (1990) also find The results evidence for durability in the nondurables and services data. results since they account for these the fact that reinforce reported here averaged. data is time the consumption = be s(t) would to set s (t) general model more A [a(l-r)/(l—y^ )]s (t-4) so that the habit stock is a weighted average of A likelihood ratio test of services one year ago, two years ago and so on. yields a P-value of 0.26 (with y allowed to be negative in the y = When jr is set to zero, we get the model given in unrestricted estimation). Since the more complicated model provides very insignificant (5.5). improvement in the likelihood function, it is not discussed. 28 Heaton (1989) also examines models in which the durable good has a This induces peaks in the spectral density of consumption finite life. then If these peaks are close to the seasonal frequencies, differences. seasonal adjustment will also remove dynamics that are induced by the nature of the consumption goods themselves. 29 The estimated simplicity. values of the 30 an seasonal dummies are omitted for Osborn (1988) and Person and Harvey (1991) also suggest that there is important role for habit persistence in fitting seasonally unadjusted data. 38 Appendix This appendix provides technical support for section and gives a III more general development of some of the results. Let (n.^^.Pr) be the underlying probability space. Information in the economy is represented by a sequence of sub sigma-algebras of ?: where t6[0,oo)} for 3:(t)£3^(s) t < Let s. n* =R^ j"" xQ and be Fs{^(t): product the + sigma-algebra given by 9=xS + a measure on where p the denote the product measure given by I predictable (1982)) of denotes the Borel sets of sigma-algebra subsets of Q . Chung (see Services respect to T and square integrable, at t, and are to Lebesgue measure, PrxA, as Pr* Williams required to (1983) be Let T be . Elliot or measurable an element of £ {Q* ,T,Pr*) i.e., the consumer makes choices over services, implies that, Let A be Ir\ + that has density exp(-pt) with respect !R 0. > where B . with Since requiring them to be predictable the consumer can use only information generated by {? : s S < t>. The consumer evaluates s € £ {Q ,T,Pr ) with the utility function: Uis) = -(l/2)£{J'"exp(-pt)[s(t)-b(t)]^dt> (A.l) Let g be nonrandom distribution on a IR , then part of services are generated by: (A. 2) s^ = g*c The distribution g often puts weight on all of R defined by setting c to be zero for x conditions for the service process, < let 39 0. , in which case, In order s (t) be a to (A. 2) is allow for initial nonrandom member of } £^iQ* ,T ,Pr* ] gives the contribution to services at s (t) . The service process at time initial stock of services. s(t) = s^(t) s^it), + t time from the t then given by: is t>0. Since the preferences of the representative consumer are defined over elements of £ {Q ,T,Pr of some restriction needs to be placed upon the space ), consumption processes and the distribution g such that given by results in a (A. 2) member The first restriction that member of (Q i£ version of ,Pr ,9^ denoted g, = such that (c {Be 2 -£ 2 +(j € 1 ) ' where )} * " g' (w)g' (w) c' = ch, [Dc]' is and ^ i is I for iO and t = Dch and so on. is restricted the smallest essentially bounded and where integer g' is the g' implies processes into £ [Q (A. 3) where h(t) = exp(-ct) Similarly let £^(Q* ,T ,Pr* Fourier transform of Assumption define a discounted The space of admissible consumption processes 1: C to be: the mapping yields a this restriction, = gh, g' as: c = p/2. zero otherwise and Assumption g' convolution ). insures that impose I To describe ). £ {Q ,'P,Pr of the ,'3' that ,Pr (A. 2) ), maps space the of admissible consumption since: £{j"exp(-pt)[ g*c(t) ]^dt} = £{/" = [g' »€( t £{/" ] ) ^dt g' (w)g' (w) c' (cj) c' (w) d(j>. -00 where c' (w) is the Fourier follows from the Parseval transform of formula. c' Note and we have: 40 . that The second equality in (e + D)[D^c)' it) = (A. 3) {D^*^c)' . £{J'"exp(-pt)[ g»c(t) (A. 4) ]^dt} /\ (^^+'^^' EiSll Assumption 1 ^ g' (w)g' ((!))(D^c)' (w)(Dc^)' (o;)*dw. and the Holder inequality imply that To insure that the mapping the economy, Assumption plane: where > The Laplace 2: cr' > p/2}. satisfies the information structure of (A. 2) ;g(C)i , - transform of Further, gC^), g, for each real some for !^ (C)' compact sets Kc[cr',co) where analytic in the half is p/2 and < = > cr' T polynomial + iw which depends on er o-eK. Using Theorem 2.5 of Beltrami and Wohlers 2, is finite. (A. 5) the following additional assumption is imposed upon g: {C:Re(C) o- /\ (1966, p. 51), imply that g is one-sided, putting weight only on R subset of) ^^(n*,y,Pr*) into I^ {7i ,9 ,Pr* Assumptions 1 and and maps (possibly a ) The problem facing the consumer is to maximize the objective function the mapping (A.l) subject (3.3) by choice of Dc(t). to I necessarily not consumption (A. 2) Because the control variable of the problem is but itself convenient to rewrite the mapping g^ and the capital accumulation technology is a 1 as: s that is (A. 2) can always be found using a result derivative I = g„*D c. The solves representative consumer the following problem: (MP) Max (-l/2)£{J°'expC-pt)[s(t)-b(t)]^dt> subject to: I 2 s(t) = gp*D c + s (t) and 41 p. c, it is The distribution analogous to parts (see, for example, Beltrami and Wohlers (1966, of integration by 28)). resource allocation Dk(t) = pk(t) by choice of a D c process in C + e(t) - c(t). k(0) given i=nJ,c Letting y {t)=D for j=0,2, . (., the Lagrangian for this problem is given by: £ = -£-|j" exp(-pt)j(l/2) A (t) [g^*y^(t) k(t) - kiO) £-1 r where A and A k , A (t) j=0,l, y (t) i-1 s^(t) - b{t)f pT'-k(T)dT - j''e(T)dT + f^y (T)dT - - y (0) j J ..., + - {T)dT S y o-'j + i 11 are Lagrange multipliers. J The first-order conditions for the choice of k(t) and y for each t^O, are then given by: (A. 5) (A. , j=0,l, ... i £|-gj*[g^»yg(t) (A. 9) As in section III, unit of is a b(t)]:?(t)| - = the left side of (A. 9} consumption the consumption s^t) + good martingale. at time To use looking inverse for g„ is needed. 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Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Sundaresan, S.M. (1989). "Intertemporally Dependent Preferences and the Volatitlity of Consumption and Wealth," Review of Financial Studies, 2: 73-89. Wilcox, D.W. (1991). "What Do We Know About Consumption," manuscript. Working, H. (1960). "Note on the Correlation of First Differences Averages in a Random Chain," Econometrica, 28: 916-918. 47 of 1 TABLE 2 . ESTIMATES OF MA(1) MODEL FOR FIRST-DIFFERENCES OF PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED QUARTERLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES. FIRST-ORDER AUTOCORRELATION RESTRICTED TO 0.25 Parameter Estimates Parameter 52, 1 to 86,4 59,1 to 86,4 ^ (xlO^) 0.475 (0.052) 0.485 (0.060) e 0.224 (0.016) 0.253 (0.019) o Log-Likelihood 67.046 92.491 ^Standard errors are in parentheses. TABLE 2.2 ESTIMATES OF MA(1) MODEL FOR FIRST-DIFFERENCES OF PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED QUARTERLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES. UNRESTRICTED ESTIMATION Parameter Estimates Parameter 52,1 to 86,4 yL (xlO^) e e 59,1 to 86,4 0.474 (0.053) 0.487 (0.059) 0.224 (0.016) 0.252 (0.019) 0.062 (0.019) 0.060 (0.023) 1 Log-Likelihood 67.092 92.494 Standard errors are in parentheses. 48 TABLE 2.3 ESTIMATES OF MA(1) MODEL FOR FIRST-DIFFERENCES OF PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES, 59,1 TO 86,12 Parameter Estimation with 0.25 Restriction Unrestricted^ on R(l)^ M (xlO^) e^ - 0.156 (0.027) 0.164 (0.017) 0.248 (0.015) 0.216 (0.010) -0.047 (0.011) e^ Log-Likelihood 211.33 254.54 Standard Errors are in parentheses. TABLE 2.4 AUTOCORRELATION VALUES FOR FIRST-DIFFERENCES OF PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-UNADJUSTED QUARTERLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES, 59,1 TO 86,4 TREND AND SEASONAL DUMMIES REMOVED Autocorrelation Order of Autocorelation " 1 -0.059 (0.087) 2 -0.027 (0.083) 3 0.167 (0.107) 4 0.327 (0.080) 5 -0.073 (0.086) These were calculated using ^Standard errors are in parentheses. procedure. (1987) Newey-West in the lags one year of 49 1 TABLE 5. ESTIMATES OF EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL USING PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES, 59, 1 TO 86,12 Estimated Value Parameter 11 (x 10^) e Log-Likelihood 164 (0.017) 0.215 (0.010) 1.358 (0.161) 0. 254.54 Standard errors are in parentheses 50 TABLE 5.2 MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATES OF PARAMETERS OF HABIT PERSISTENCE WITH EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL, USING PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES, 59,1 TO 86, 12 Parameter H (x Parameter Estimates^ 10^) 0. 156 (0.024) (T 0.132 (0.010) 5 -1.558 (0.743) y -0.211 (0.414) 0.438 (0.308) a 256.22 Log-Likelihood Standard errors are in parentheses TABLE 5.3 ESTIMATES OF HALF-LIVES IN MONTHS FOR DURABILITY AND HABIT PERSISTENCE EFFECTS WITH MONTHLY DATA Depreciation Parameter Estimates S 0.656 (0.104) y 3.293 (6.473) Standard errors in parentheses 51 TABLE 5.4 ESTIMATES OF EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL USING PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY- AD JUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON DURABLES, 59,1 TO 86,12 Parameter (x fi Estimated Value^ 10^) e Log-Likelihood 0.389 (0.036) 0.137 (0.009) •1.647 (0.280) 278.66 Standard errors are in parentheses TABLE 5.5 MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATES OF PARAMETERS FOR HABIT PERSISTENCE WITH EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL, USING PER CAPITA, SEASONALLY-ADJUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON DURABLES, 59,1 TO 86,12 Parameter fi (x Parameter Estimates 10^) 0.390 (0.035) - (F 0.047 (0.005) 8 -0.461 r -4.176 (0.059) a 0.754 (0.069) Log-Likelihood 281.87 Standard errors are in parentheses 52 (0.137) TABLE 5.6 LIKELIHOOD RATIO TESTS OF HABIT PERSISTENCE WITH EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL AGAINST UNRESTRICTED ARMA MODELS USING PER CAPITA. SEASON ALLY- AD JUSTED MONTHLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON DURABLES, 59,1 TO 86,12 ARMA Model Likelihood Ratio Value P-Value ARMA(1,2) 3.52 0.061 ARMA(1,3) 8.32 0.016 ARMA(1,4) 12.4 0.006 ARMA (1,5) 14.6 0.006 ARMA(1.6) 16.3 0.006 53 TABLE 5.7 ESTIMATES OF EXPONENTIAL DEPRECIATION MODEL WITH SEASONAL HABIT FORMATION USING PER CAPITA. SEASONALLY-UNADJUSTED QUARTERLY CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES ON NONDURABLES AND SERVICES, 59, 1 TO 86,4. ESTIMATES OF SEASONAL DUMMIES OMITTED Estimated Value Parameter fi Log-Likelihood 0.408 (0.074) e 0.127 (0.010) 5 -1.802 (0.414; a 0.349 (0.087: (x 10^) 147.60 ^Standard errors are in parentheses 54 — r r O —— ———— — I I "I I I O —— ———— r-n I 1 I I I I I \ o -t-J o - (J) - CO 'o (D i_ Q. CD Q r-- c - (X) CD C O Cl X u n 'q. E - CN cr J 0"L Z3 Li_ I I I g'O I I I L I ^'0 ^'O- (i)y I 9'0- o I O'L o 551+3 u6i+ MIT 3 LIBRARIES DUPL T060 0Q7M73E0 7 Date Due Lib-26-67 3 TD60 007^73^0 7