A useful reference
Good Reference on Economic Theory Relevant to Survey of Consumer Finance
If you need a recent and slightly advanced reference
on economic theory relevant to SCF research, consider
David Romer’s Advanced Macroeconomics (McGraw-Hill, 1996.)
($43.35 at OSU Bookstore for an economics course.)
It may seem strange to use a MACRO text as a reference
for research about household behavior, but macroeconomics
provides much more background than microeconomics.
Macroeconomics, especially growth theory, is concerned with
optimal savings and investment policy.
Romer’s topics include:
“A Model of Human Capital and Growth”
“Consumption under Certainty: The Life-Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis”
“Consumption under Uncertainty: The Random-Walk Hypothesis”
“The Interest Rate and Savings”
“Consumption and Risky Assets”
Among other things, he provides a derivation of
C2/C1 = ((1+r)/(1+rho))^(1/x)
(with slightly different symbols)
which is the basis for the life cycle savings program.