Course Outline/Reading List
Note:
Readings discussed explicitly in class will be noted with (*). The readings indicated
under the “additional reading” sections are optional. You are responsible for all other
readings.
Topic 0: Course Preamble
1. Charles, Kerwin, Erik Hurst and Matt Notowidigdo (2012). “Manufacturing Busts, Housing
Booms, and Declining Employment: A Structural Explanation”. (See Erik’s webpage) (*)
2. Elsby, Mike, Bark Hobijn, and Aysegul Sahin (2011). "The Labor Market in the Great
Recession: An Update", Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall.
3. Moffitt, Robert (2012). "The U.S. Employment-Population Reversal in the 2000s: Facts and
Explanations", Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall. (*)
4. Autor, David and Mark Duggan (2003). “The Rise in the Disability Rolls and the Decline in
Unemployment”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1), 157-206.
Additional Reading: An Important Older Literature on Sectoral Shifts
5. Lilien, David (1982). "Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment", Journal of Political
Economy, 90(4), 777-793.
6. Abraham, Katherine and Larry Katz (1986). “Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or
Aggregate Disturbances”, Journal of Political Economy, 94(3), 507-22.
Topic 1: Consumption Inequality
7. Attanasio, Orazio, Erik Hurst and Luigi Pistaferri (2012). "The Evolution of Income,
Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in the US, 1980-2010", in Improving Measurment of
Consumer Expenditures (eds. Chris Carroll, Thomas Crossley, and John Sabelhaus). (You
can find a version on Erik's webpage). (*)
8. Autor, David, Larry Katz, and Melissa Kearney (2008). "Trends in U.S. Wage Inequality:
Revising the Revisionists", Review of Economic and Statistics, 90(2): 300-23.
9. Attanasio, Orazio and Steve Davis (1996). “Relative Wage Movements and the Distribution
of Consumption”, Journal of Political Economy, 104(6), 1227-62.
10. Attanasio, Orazio, Erich Battistin, and Hidehiko Ichimura (2004). "What Really Happened
to Consumption Inequality in the US?", NBER Working Paper 10338.
11. Krueger, Dirk and Fabrizio Perri (2006), "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption
Inequality: Evidence and Theory" Review of Economic Studies, 73(1), 163-93. (*)
12. Aguiar, Mark and Mark Bils (2011). "Has Consumption Inequality Mirrored Income
Inequality", NBER Working Paper, 16807. (*)
Topic 2: Life Cycle Consumption
13. Ghez and Becker (1975), The Allocation of Time and Goods over the Life Cycle, Chapter 2
(you can find it online at http://www.nber.org/books/ghez75-1) (*)
14. Heckman, Jim (1974). “Life Cycle Consumption and Labor Supply: An Explanation of the
Relationship Between Income and Consumption Over the Life Cycle”. American Economic
Review, 64, 188-194.
15. Carroll, Chris and Larry Summers (1991). “Consumption Growth Parallels Income Growth:
Some New Evidence”, in Bernheim and Shoven, eds, National Saving and Economic
Performance. Chicago University Press. (can be found on Carroll’s Faculty Web Page).
16. Blundell Richard, Martin Browning, and Costas Meghir (1994) “Consumer Demand and the
Life-Cycle Allocation of Household Expenditures”, Review of Economic Studies, 61, 57-80.
17. Attanasio, Orazio and Martin Browning (1995), “Consumption Over the Life Cycle and Over
the Business Cycle”, American Economic Review, 85(5), 1118-37.
18. Deaton, Angus and Christina Paxson (1994). "Intertemporal Choice and Inequality", Journal
of Political Economy. 102(3), 437-67. (*)
19. Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier and Jonathan Parker (2002). “Consumption over the Life Cycle”,
Econometrica, 70, 47-89. (*)
20. Angeletos, George-Marios, David Laibson, Andrea Repetto, Jeremy Tobacman, and Stephen
Weinberg (2001). "The Hyperbolic Consumption Model: Calibration, Simulation, and
Empirical Evalation", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15(3), 47-68.
21. Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2005). “Consumption versus Expenditure”, Journal of
Political Economy, 113(5), 919-948. (Retirement Consumption) (*)
22. Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2012). “Deconstruction Life Cycle Consumption”, Journal of
Political Economy, 121(3), 437-92. (can be found on my web page – use the web page
version). (*)
Additional Readings: Surveys of Consumption Literature
23. Deaton, Angus (1992). Understanding Consumption, Clarendon Lectures in Economics,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. (This is a good book to purchase).
24. Attanasio, Orazio (1999). “Consumption”, Handbook of Macroeconomics, vol 1B, Chapter
11, pp. 741-812. (*) (I will provide a copy of this on my web page).
Additional Readings on Empirical Consumption (good to know)
25. Hall, Robert (1978). “Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income
Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence”, Journal of Political Economy, 86(6), 971 - 87. (Tests of
PIH Model)
26. Zeldes, Steve (1989). “Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation”,
Journal of Political Economy, 97 (2), 305-46. (Liquidity Constraints)
27. Cochrane, John (1991). “A Simple Test of Consumption Insurance” Journal of Political
Economy, 99(5), 957-976. (Risk Sharing)
28. Deaton, Angus (1992) “Saving and Liquidity Constraints”, Econometrica, 59, 1221-48.
(Precautionary Savings)
29. Carroll, Chris (1997), “Buffer Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income
Hypothesis”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112(1), 1-55. (Precautionary Saving)
30. Hsieh, Chang-Tai (2003), “Do Consumers React to Anticipated Income Changes? Evidence
from the Alaska Permanent Fund”, American Economic Review, 93(1), 397-405.
31. Blundell, Richard, Luigi Pistaferri, and Ian Preston (2008). "Consumption Inequality and
Partial Insurance", American Economic Review, 98(5), 1186-1210.
32. Charles, Kerwin, Erik Hurst and Nick Roussanov (2009). “Conspicuous Consumption and
Race”, Quarterly Economic Review, 124(2), 425-467. (Signaling and Consumption)
33. Kaplan, Greg and Gianluca Violante (2013). "A Model of the Consumption Response to the
Fiscal Stimulus Payments". Working paper (revise and resubmit at Econometrica).
Topic 4: Home Production
34. Mincer, Jacob (1962). “Labor Force Participation of Married Women: A Study of Labor
Supply”,
in
Aspects
of
Labor
Economics
(found
here:
http://www.nber.org/chapters/c0603.pdf)
35. Gronau, Ruben (1986). “Home Production: A Survey”, in Ashenfelter, O. and Layard, R
(eds), Handbook of Labor Economics, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 273-304. (this can be
found here: http://econpapers.repec.org/bookchap/eeelabchp/1-04.htm).
36. Benhabib, J, Richard Rogerson, and Randy Wright (1991), “Homework in Macroeconomics:
Household Production and Aggregate Fluctuations”, Journal of Political Economy, 99, 116687. (*)
37. Greenwood, Jeremy and Zvi Hercowitz (1991). "The Allocation of Capital and Time over
the Business Cycle", Journal of Political Economy, 99(6): 1188-1214.
38. Rupert, Peter, Richard Rogerson, and Randy Wright (2000), “Homework in Labour
Economics: Household Production and Intertemporal Substitution”, Journal of Monetary
Economics, 46, 557-79. (*)
39. Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2007).
Economic Review, 97(5), 1533-59. (*)
“Life Cycle Prices and Production”, American
40. Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2007). “Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of
Time Over Five Decades”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 969-1006. (*)
41. Aguiar, Mark, Erik Hurst and Loukas Karabarbounis (2012). "Time Use During the Great
Recession", American Economic Review, 103(5), 1664-96.
42. Guryan, Jon, Erik Hurst and Melissa Kearney (2008). "Parental Education and Parental
Time With Children", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(3), 23-46.
43. Rogerson, Richard and Johanna Wallenius (2012). "Retirement, Home Production, and
Labor Supply Elasticities", working paper.
Topic 5: Occupational Choice and Aggregate Productivity
44. Hsieh, Chang-Tai, Erik Hurst, Chad Jones, and Pete Klenow (2012). “The Allocation of
Talent and Economic Growth”, working paper (see Erik’s web page). (*)
45. Lagakos, David and Mike Waugh (2012). "Selection, Agriculture, and Cross-Country
Productivity Differences", American Economic Review, 103(2), 948-80.
46. Costinot, Arnaud, Dave Donaldson, and Cory Smith (2013). "Evolving Comparative
Advantage and the Impact of Climate Change in Agricultural Markets: Evidence from a 9
Million Field Partition of the Earth". MIT working paper.
Topic 6: The Labor Market During the Great Recession
47. Guerrieri, Veronica and Guido Lorenzoni (2011). "Credit Crises, Precautionary Savings and
the Liquidity Trap", working paper (see Veronica's webpage).
48. Jaimovich, Nir and Henry Siu (2012). "The Trend is the Cycle: Job Polarization and Jobless
Recoveries", working paper (see Nir's webpage).
49. Rothstein, Jesse (2011). "Unemployment Insurance and Job Search in the Great Recession",
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Fall 2011, 143-201.
50. Michaillat, Pascal (2012). "Do Matching Frictions Explain Unemployment? Not in Bad
Times", American Economic Review, 102(4), 1721-50.
Additional Reading: An Important Older Literature on Long Run Changes in Labor Supply
51. Juhn, Chinhui, Kevin Murphy, and Bob Topel (1991), “Why Has the Natural Rate of
Unemployment Increased Over Time?”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1991(2),
75-142.
52. Katz, Larry and Kevin Murphy (1992). “Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply
and Demand Factors”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 107(1), 35-78.
53. Juhn, Chinhui, Kevin Murphy, and Bob Topel (2002), “Current Unemployment, Historically
Contemplated”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2002(1), 79-136.
Topic 6: Regional Adjustments
54. Blanchard, Olivier and Larry Katz (1992). “Regional Evolutions”, Brookings Papers on
Economic Activity, 1992 (1), 1 – 75. (*)
Regional Housing Markets
55. Saiz, Albert (2010). "The Geographic Determinants of Housing Supply", 125(3), 1253-1297.
56. Guerrieri, Veronica, Daniel Hartley and Erik Hurst (2013). "Endogenous Gentrification and
Housing Price Dynamics", Journal of Public Economics, 100(C), 45-60.
57. Notowidigdo, Matthew (2011). "The Incidence of Local Labor Demand Shocks", working
paper (see Matt's web page).
Regional Variation During Great Recession
58. Mian, Atif and Amir Sufi (2012). "What Explains High Unemployment? The DeleveragingAggregate Demand Hypothesis", (see Amir’s webpage). (*)
59. Sahin, Aysegul, Joseph Song, Giorgio Topa, and Gianluca Violante (2011). "Measuring
Mismatch in the U.S. Labor Market", working paper (See Gianluca's webpage).
60. Midrigan, Virgiliu and Thomas Phillipon (2011). "Household Leverage and the Recession",
working paper (see Virgiliu's webpage)
Regional Multipliers
61. Nakamura, Emi and Jon Steinnson (2013). "Fiscal Stimulus in a Monetary Union: Evidence
from U.S. Regions". American Economic Review (forthcoming). See Emi's web page for a
recent version. (*)
62. Shoag, Danny (2012). "The Impact of Government Spending Shocks: Evidence on the
Multiplier from State Pension Plan Returns". (See Danny's web page at Kennedy School).
Regional Convergence
63. Barro, Robert and Xavier Sala-I-Martin (1991). "Convergence Across States and Regions",
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1991, 107-82. (*)
Regional Labor Markets
64. Topel, Bob (1986). “Local Labor Markets”, Journal of Political Economy, 94(3), S111-43.
65. Davis, Steve, Prakash Loungani, and Ramamohan Mahidhara (1997). "Regional Labor
Fluctuations: Oil Shocks, Military Spending, and Other Driving Forces", working paper (see
http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/ifdp/1997/578/ifdp578.pdf)
66. Autor, David, David Dorn, and Gordon Hanson (2011). "The China Syndrome: Local Labor
Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States" working paper (see David
Autor's web page). (*)
Regional Migration
67. Kaplan, Greg and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl (2012). "Understanding the Long-Run Decline in
Interstate Migration", working paper (see Greg's webpage at Princeton).
Regional Price Variation
68. Coibion, Olivier, Yuriy Gorodnichenko, and Gee Hee Hong (2012). "The Cyclicality of
Sales, Regular and Effective Prices: Business Cycle and Policy Implications" (see Yuriy's
Berkeley webpage).
69. Kaplan, Greg and Guido Menzio (2013). "Deconstructing Price Dispersion", Princeton
working paper. (See Greg's Princeton webpage).
Topic 7: Understanding Small Businesses
70. Evans, David and Boyan Jovanovic (1989). “An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice
Under Liquidity Constraints”, Journal of Political Economy, 97(4), 808-27. (*)
71. Evans, David, and Linda Leighton, “Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship”,
American Economic Review, 79(3), 519-35.
72. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, David Joulfaian, and Harvey Rosen, (1994). “Sticking It Out:
Entrepreneurial Survival and Liquidity Constraints.” Journal of Political Economy, 102, 5375.
73. Hurst, Erik and Annamaria Lusardi (2004). “Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and
Entrepreneurship”, Journal of Political Economy, 11292), 319-47. (*)
74. Hamilton, Bart (2000). “Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns
to Self Employment”, Journal of Political Economy, 108, 604-31.
75. Moskowitz, Toby and Annette Vissing Jorgensen. “The Returns to Entrepreneurial
Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?”, American Economic Review, 94(2), 74578.
76. Hurst, Erik, Geng Li and Ben Pugsley (2011). "Are Household Surveys Like Tax Forms:
Evidence from Income Underreporting of the Self Employed", Working Paper (see Erik's
web page). (*)
77. Hurst, Erik, Geng Li and Ben Pugsley (2011). "What Do Small Businesses Do?", Brookings
Papers on Economic Activity, forthcoming (see my web page for details). (*)