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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Household Model Of Careers And Education Investment, Jessica F. Young Nov 2012

A Household Model Of Careers And Education Investment, Jessica F. Young

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper develops a two-stage non-cooperative household game, in which parents make career decisions and an investment into their child’s human capital. The model is solved for Nash equilibrium outcomes and extended for a cooperative solution. In non-cooperative pure strategies, both parents choosing to work is a Nash equilibrium, though there are alternative outcomes when the conditions underlying the career decision are varied. The investment behaviour of agents is analysed. We find that choices are critically affected by the magnitude of the cost (and reflected quality) of a high education investment relative to a low investment, and the intrinsic value …


How Are Interest Rates Affecting Household Consumption And Savings?, Lacy Christensen May 2012

How Are Interest Rates Affecting Household Consumption And Savings?, Lacy Christensen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper explores the optimal interest rates that could potentially maximize overall consumption and savings. I attempt to determine whether artificially low interest rates are positively or negatively affecting consumption. There has been speculation on whether the United States needs to raise the effective federal funds rate to provide financial institutions the incentive to lend money and increase household consumption. The Federal Reserve is currently keeping the effective funds rate between 0 and .25 in hopes of increasing consumption levels. This paper uses fifty years of interest rate data to narrow in on an optimal interest rate that leads to …