Intragenerational Redistribution in Unfunded Pension Systems

This paper studies the intracohort redistributive aspects of the United States social security system in the context of a computable general equilibrium model. It determines how the well-being of individuals who differ by gender, race, and education is affected by government social security policy. Differences in life expectancy and labor productivity translate into differences in capital accumulation and labor supply distortions that are responsible for the observed welfare difference between individuals of the same age cohort. Copyright 2000, International Monetary Fund

Marital risk and capital accumulation

Between the sixties and the late eighties the percentages of low-saving single-parent households and people living alone have grown dramatically at the expense of high-saving married households, while the household saving rate has declined equally dramatically. A preliminary analysis of population composition and savings by household type seems to indicate that about half of the decline in savings is due to demographic change. We construct a model with agents changing marital status, but where the saving behavior of the households can adjust to the properties of the demographic process. We find that the demographic changes that reduce the number of married households (mainly higher divorce and higher illegitimacy) induce all household types to save more and that the effect on the aggregate saving rate is minuscule. We conclude that the drop in savings since the sixties is not due to changes in household composition.Saving and investment

The intra-generational redistributive effects of social security

This paper provides a quantitative evaluation of the intra--cohort redistributive elements of the United States social security system in the context of a computable general equilibrium model. I determine how the well--being of individuals that differ across {\sl gender, race} and {\sl education} is affected by government social security policy. I find that females, whites and non--college graduates stand less to gain (lose) from reductions (increases) in the size of social security than males, non--whites and college graduates, respectively. Differences in mortality risk and labor productivity translate into differences in the magnitudes of capital accumulation and labor supply distortions, that are responsible for the observed welfare difference between types. Results imply that the current program is lifetime progressive across gender and education, yet lifetime regressive across race.Social security, demographics, heterogeneity, redistribution, simulation

Hemodynamic-based Assessment and Management of Cardiogenic Shock

Cardiogenic shock (CS) remains a deadly disease entity challenging patients, caregivers, and communities across the globe. CS can rapidly lead to the development of hypoperfusion and end-organ dysfunction, transforming a predictable hemodynamic event into a potential high-resource, intense, hemometabolic clinical catastrophe. Based on the scalable heterogeneity from a cellular level to healthcare systems in the hemodynamic-based management of patients experiencing CS, we present considerations towards systematic hemodynamic-based transitions in which distinct clinical entities share the common path of early identification and rapid transitions through an adaptive longitudinal situational awareness model of care that influences specific management considerations. Future studies are needed to best understand optimal management of drugs and devices along with engagement of health systems of care for patients with CS

The role of household composition, formation and dissolution in life cycle economics: Theory and evidence

This dissertation consists of three distinct yet related essays. In the first essay, entitled The Intra-Generational Redistributive Effects of Social Security, we examine how households that differ in regard to their life expectancy and labor productivity, are affected by changes in social security policy. For this purpose we develop a general equilibrium, large overlapping generations mode, parameterized to match US economy aggregates and socio-demographic characteristics. We find that females, whites and non-college graduates stand less to gain from reductions in social security benefits than males, non-whites and college graduates, respectively. In the second essay, entitles Marital Risk and Capital Accumulation, we assess how household saving behavior is affected by different patterns of household formation and dissolution. In particular, we ask the question whether there is any relationship between the sharp increase in divorce rates over the last forty years in the US, and the reduction in the savings rate, over this same time period. To answer this question quantitatively, we posit an overlapping generations model that distinguishes between the sexes and marital status and where agents are subject to changes in family status that resemble US patterns. We find that higher divorce rates induce higher savings rates. Since divorce is not insurable and since households are generally made worse off after divorce, households will save more, due to standard precautionary reasons. In addition, our model better replicates consumption, saving and aggregate wealth data than do life cycle models with uninsured idiosyncratic unemployment risk. The third essay is entitled Time Allocation and Life Insurance Ownership Patterns: The Role of Age, Gender and Marital Status. Using date from the Current Population Survey, the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics and the Survey of Consumer Financial Decisions, we compute time allocation and life insurance ownership patterns for different households. We find that there exist huge differences in behavior for home hours, market hours and life insurance ownership based on age, gender and marital status. These differences are unaccounted for in existing general equilibrium dynamic models. The documented empirical evidence should not only reaffirm the need to develop models consistent with these findings, but also provide us with the proper groundwork to calibrate them

Centro de Altsimos Estudios Ros Perez

In this paper we show the quantitative importance of the process that determines changes in family composition to determine the main macroeconomic magnitudes. We do so by modelling family type as a stochastic process that a#ects households in a way similar to shocks to earnings. Agents respond to these process by optimally choosing savings. We show that the size of savings di#ers dramatically depending on the details of the stochastic process. The model is quantitative: its fundamental parameters are estimated using U.S. data