Essays in Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Agents and Portfolio Choice

Abstract

Dissertation Abstract Essays in Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Agents and Portfolio Choice Ivo Bakota This thesis studies how the asset portfolio heterogeneity of households influences wealth inequality and macroeconomic outcomes in macroeconomic models. Specifically, it analyses the implications of a change in firm leverage and differential asset taxation on inequality and other macroeconomic variables, and how to compute the macroeconomic models used to study these implications more efficiently. Chapter 1 studies the effects of a change in firm leverage on wealth inequality and macroeconomic aggregates. The effects are studied in a general equilibrium model with a continuum of heterogeneous agents, life-cycle, incomplete markets, and idiosyncratic and aggregate risk. In the benchmark model, an increase in firm leverage leads to an increase in capital accumulation, and a decrease in wealth inequality and government revenue. Furthermore, I show that if the model abstracts from capital income taxation, the change in leverage has only minor effects on macro aggregates and inequality, despite having significant implications for asset prices. Chapter 2 analyzes the redistributional and macroeconomic effects of differential taxation of financial assets with a different risk. Poor households in the US...