Consumption Theory 1997

Credit: 5 points

Teachers:  John.Hassler and Kjetil Storesletten

Time: Period 2, lectures on Mondays at 14.00, beginning November 3.

Course outline: This course is targeted at students who have finished their first year of graduate studies. The main focus of the course is on understanding empirical and theoretical aspects of consumption, savings and investment. These are core topics of economics and very active research areas. Our aim is to bring the students to the research frontier in the theory of consumption, and to get people started on research projects, directly or indirectly related to the issues covered in class. We do therefore want to push students to write a term paper instead of a conventional exam. 

We intend to cover the following topics:

1. Insurance and risk
2. Liquidity constraints
3. Durables
4. Public policy and savings
5. Altruism and bequests
6. Habit formation
7. Non-expected utility
8. Rationality, information and learning

Examination: Problem sets during the course, an exam or term paper at the end of the course.

Registration: If you are interested in the class, please contact Pille Härmat or any of the teachers as soon as possible.

Literature: 

1. Deaton, A., (1992), Understanding Consumption, Oxford university Press.
2. Lecture notes
3. Articles

Last edited September 16, 1997