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The Fisher Two-Period Optimal Consumption Problem

This notebook creates interactive widgets illustrating a two-period optimal consumption problem. It also presents graphic representations of the decomposition of the effect of interest rates into the income, substitution, and human wealth effects.

Basic Plot: the optimal (c1,c2) bundle.

The maximization problem is stated below:

max{c1,c2}⁡V(c1,c2)

subject to:

c2=(b1+y1−c1)R+y2

Second plot: interest rate shifts with lifetime income earned in first period.

Third plot: interest rate shifts with lifetime income earned in second period

Fourth plot: the effects of changes in the coefficient of risk aversion

For this exercise, we assume that no income is received in the second period. The relevant parameter is therefore M1, the total market resources before consumption in period 1.