Course Outline/Reading List
Note: Readings discussed explicitly in class will be noted with (*). The readings indicated under the additional reading sections are option. You are responsible for all other readings.
Topic 1: Consumption Inequality
1.
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.
2.
Attanasio, Orazio and Steve Davis (1996). “Relative Wage Movements and the Distribution of Consumption”,
Journal of Political Economy , 104(6), 1227-62.
3.
Attanasio, Orazio, Erich Battistin, and Hidehiko Ichimura (2004). "What Really Happened to Consumption Inequality in the US?", NBER Working Paper 10338 .
4.
Krueger, Dirk and Fabrizio Perri (2006), "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption
Inequality: Evidence and Theory" Review of Economic Studies , 73(1), 163-93. (*)
5.
Aguiar, Mark and Mark Bils (2011). "Has Consumption Inequality Mirrored Income
Inequality", NBER Working Paper , 16807. (*)
Topic 2: Life Cycle Consumption
6.
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 ) (*)
7.
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.
8.
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).
9.
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.
10.
Attanasio, Orazio and Martin Browning (1995), “Consumption Over the Life Cycle and Over the Business Cycle”, American Economic Review , 85(5), 1118-37.

11.
Deaton, Angus and Christina Paxson (1994). "Intertemporal Choice and Inequality", Journal of Political Economy . 102(3), 437-67. (*)
12.
Gourinchas, Pierre-Olivier and Jonathan Parker (2002). “Consumption over the Life Cycle”,
Econometrica , 70, 47-89. (*)
13.
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.
14.
Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2005). “Consumption versus Expenditure”, Journal of
Political Economy , 113(5), 919-948. (Retirement Consumption) (*)
15.
Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2009). “Deconstruction Life Cycle Consumption”, working paper (can be found on my web page – use the web page version). (*)
Additional Readings: Surveys of Consumption Literature
16.
Deaton, Angus (1992). Understanding Consumption , Clarendon Lectures in Economics,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. (This is a good book to purchase).
17.
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)
18.
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) (*)
19.
Zeldes, Steve (1989). “Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation”,
Journal of Political Economy , 97 (2), 305-46. (Liquidity Constraints) (**)
20.
Cochrane, John (1991). “A Simple Test of Consumption Insurance” Journal of Political
Economy , 99(5), 957-976. (Risk Sharing) (**)
21.
Deaton, Angus (1992) “Saving and Liquidity Constraints”,
Econometrica , 59, 1221-48.
(Precautionary Savings) (*)
22.
Carroll, Chris (1997), “Buffer Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income
Hypothesis”,
Quarterly Journal of Economics , 112(1), 1-55. (Precautionary Saving) (*)

23.
Hsieh, Chang-Tai (2003), “Do Consumers React to Anticipated Income Changes? Evidence from the Alaska Permanent Fund”, American Economic Review, 93(1), 397-405.
24.
Blundell, Richard, Luigi Pistaferri, and Ian Preston (2008). "Consumption Inequality and
Partial Insurance", American Economic Review , 98(5), 1186-1210.
25.
Charles, Kerwin, Erik Hurst and Nick Roussanov (2009). “Conspicuous Consumption and
Race”, Quarterly Economic Review , 124(2), 425-467. (Signaling and Consumption) (**)
Topic 3: Home Production
26.
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
)
27.
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
).
28.
Benhabib, J, Richard Rogerson, and Randy Wright (1991), “Homework in Macroeconomics:
Household Production and Aggregate Fluctuations”, Journal of Political Economy, 99, 1166-
87. (*)
29.
Greenwood, Jeremy and Zvi Hercowitz (1991). "The Allocation of Capital and Time over the Business Cycle", Journal of Political Economy , 99(6): 1188-1214.
30.
Rupert, Peter, Richard Rogerson, and Randy Wright (2000), “Homework in Labour
Economics: Household Production and Intertemporal Substitution”,
Journal of Monetary
Economic s, 46, 557-79. (*)
31.
Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2007). “Life Cycle Prices and Production”, American
Economic Review , 97(5), 1533-59. (*)
32.
Aguiar, Mark and Erik Hurst (2007). “Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of
Time Over Five Decades”,
Quarterly Journal of Economics , 12293), 969-1006. (*)
33.
Aguiar, Mark, Erik Hurst and Loukas Karabarbounis (2011). "Time Use During
Recessions", NBER Working Paper 17529. (*)

34.
Guryan, Jon, Erik Hurst and Melissa Kearney (2008). "Parental Education and Parental
Time With Children", Journal of Economic Perspectives , 22(3), 23-46.
Topic 4: Long Run Trends in Hours
35.
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.
36.
Katz, Larry and Kevin Murphy (1992). “Changes in Relative Wages, 1963-1987: Supply and Demand Factors”,
Quarterly Journal of Economics , 107(1), 35-78.
37.
Juhn, Chinhui, Kevin Murphy, and Bob Topel (2002), “Current Unemployment, Historically
Contemplated”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , 2002(1), 79-136. (*)
38.
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.
39.
Elsby, Mike and Matthew Shapiro (2011) “Why Does Trend Growth Affect Equilibrium
Employment? A New Explanation of an Old Puzzle”,
American Economic Review , forthcoming. (*)
Topic 5: Unemployment During Recessions
40.
Lilien, David (1982). "Sectoral Shifts and Cyclical Unemployment", Journal of Political
Economy , 90(4), 777-793. (*)
41.
Abraham, Katherine and Larry Katz (1986). “Cyclical Unemployment: Sectoral Shifts or
Aggregate Disturbances”,
Journal of Political Economy , 94(3), 507-22. (*)
42.
Hall, Robert (2009). "Reconciling Cyclical Movements in the Marginal Value of Time and the Marginal Product of Labor", Journal of Political Economy, 2009, 117(2).
43.
Elsby, Mike, Bark Hobijn, and Aysegul Sahin (2010). "The Labor Market in the Great
Recession", Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring. (*)
44.
Rothstein, Jesse (2011). "Unemployment and Job Search in the Great Recession", Brookings
Papers on Economic Activity, forthcoming (see Jesse's web page) (*)

45.
Sahin, Aysegul, Joseph Song, Giorgio Topa, and Gianluca Violante (2011). "Measuring
Mismatch in the U.S. Labor Market", working paper (Gianluca's web page). (*)
46.
Midrigan, Virgiliu and Thomas Phillipon (2011). "Household Leverage and the Recession", working paper (see Virgiliu's web page)
47.
Mian, Atif and Amir Sufi (2011). "What Explains High Unemployment? The Deleveraging-
Aggregate Demand Hypothesis", (this paper will be available late October - i will post a copy on my web page when it is available).
Topic 6: Regional Economics
Regional Adjustments
48.
Blanchard, Olivier and Larry Katz (1992). “Regional Evolutions”, Brookings Papers on
Economic Activity , 1992 (1), 1 – 75. (*)
49.
Barro, Robert and Xavier Sala-I-Martin (1991). "Convergence Across States and Regions",
Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1991, 107-82. (*)
50.
Topel, Bob (1986). “Local Labor Markets”,
Journal of Political Economy , 94(3), S111-43.
(*)
51.
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)
52.
Notowidigdo, Matthew (2011). "The Incidence of Local Labor Demand Shocks", working paper (see Matt's web page).
53.
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). (*)
Housing Markets
54.
Topel, Bob and Sherwin Rosen (1988). “Housing Investment in the United States”, Journal of Political Economy, 96(4), 718-40.

55.
Case, Karl and Robert Shiller (1989). “The Efficiency of the Market for Single Family
Homes”,
American Economic Review , 79(1), 125-37.
56.
Gyrouko, Joe (2008). “Housing Supply”. Annals of Economics (forthcoming). (You can find a copy on Joe’s web site).
57.
Saiz, Albert (2009). “On Local Housing Supply Elasticity”,
Quarterly Journal of Economics
(forthcoming). (You can find a version on Albert’s web site). (*)
58.
Davis, Morris and Jonathan Heathcote (2005). “Housing and the Business Cycle”,
International Economic Review , 46(3), 751-84.
59.
Van Nieuwerburgh, Stijn and Pierre-Olivier Weill (2009). “Why Has House Price
Dispersion Gone Up?”, working paper (see Stijn’s web site).
60.
Guerrieri, Veronica, Dan Hartley and Erik Hurst (2011). “Endogenous Gentrification and
Housing Price Dynamics”, working paper, (see my web page for details) (*).
Topic 8: Understanding Small Businesses
61.
Evans, David and Boyan Jovanovic (1989). “An Estimated Model of Entrepreneurial Choice
Under Liquidity Constraints”, Journal of Political Economy , 97(4), 808-27. (*)
62.
Evans, David, and Linda Leighton, “Some Empirical Aspects of Entrepreneurship”,
American Economic Review , 79(3), 519-35.
63.
Holtz-Eakin, Douglas, David Joulfaian, and Harvey Rosen, (1994). “Sticking It Out:
Entrepreneurial Survival and Liquidity Constraints.”
Journal of Political Economy , 102, 53-
75.
64.
Hurst, Erik and Annamaria Lusardi (2004). “Liquidity Constraints, Household Wealth, and
Entrepreneurship”,
Journal of Political Economy , 11292), 319-47. (*)
65.
Hamilton, Bart (2000). “Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self Employment”,
Journal of Political Economy , 108, 604-31.
66.
Moskowitz, Toby and Annette Vissing Jorgensen. “The Returns to Entrepreneurial
Investment: A Private Equity Premium Puzzle?”, American Economic Review , 94(2), 745-
78.

67.
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). (*)
68.
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). (*)