Downloads
wp0525.pdf
PDF | 282.61 KB
This paper shows that a power utility specification of preferences over total expenditure (ie. CRRA preferences) implies that intratemporal demands are in the PIGL/PIGLOG class. This class generates (at most) rank two demand systems and we can test the validity of power utility on cross-section data. Further, if we maintain the assumption of power utility, and within period preferences are not homothetic, then the intertemporal preference parameter is identified by the curvature of Engel curves. Under the power utility assumption, neither Euler equation estimation nor structural consumption function estimation is necessary to identify the power parameter. In our empirical work, we use demand data to estimate the power utility parameter and to test the assumption of the power utility representation. We find estimates of the power parameter larger than obtained from Euler equation estimation, but we reject the power specification of within period utility.
Authors
Research Fellow University of Oxford
Hamish is the James Meade Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford, a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College and a Research Fellow at IFS.
Research Fellow University of Michigan
Tom is a Research Fellow at IFS, a Research Professor for the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2005.0525
- Publisher
- IFS
Suggested citation
Crossley, T and Low, H. (2005). Is the elasticity of intertemporal substitution constant?. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/elasticity-intertemporal-substitution-constant (accessed: 20 May 2024).
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Gender norms, violence and adolescent girls’ trajectories: Evidence from India
24 October 2022
Council funding is a numbers game in which everybody is losing
13 May 2024
Empty defence spending promises are a shot in the dark
29 April 2024
Policy analysis
ABC of SV: Limited Information Likelihood Inference in Stochastic Volatility Jump-Diffusion Models
We develop novel methods for estimation and filtering of continuous-time models with stochastic volatility and jumps using so-called Approximate Bayesian Compu- tation which build likelihoods based on limited information.
12 August 2014
Assessing the economic benefits of education: reconciling microeconomic and macroeconomic approaches
This CAYT report discusses the strengths and limitations of several approaches to assessing the effect of education on productivity.
14 March 2013
Misreported schooling, multiple measures and returns to educational qualifications
We provide a number of contributions of policy, practical and methodological interest to the study of the returns to educational qualifications in the presence of misreporting.
1 February 2012
Academic research
Understanding Society: minimising selection biases in data collection using mobile apps
2 February 2024
Robust analysis of short panels
8 January 2024
A coefficient of variation for ordered categorical data: Analyzing relative health inequality and ageing in the UK and relative human resource inequality and gender in Canada
21 December 2023