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January 10, 2016, Christopher D. Carroll

2PeriodLCModel

The Fisher Two-Period Optimal Consumption Problem

Irving Fisher (1930) first analyzed the optimization problem of a consumer who
faces no uncertainty and lives for two periods.

1 Mathematical Analysis
In its most general form, the households lifetime value function can be written
V(c1 , c2 )
where the first argument reflects consumption in youth while the second argument
represents consumption in old age and we assume that the derivatives with respect
to the first and second arguments are positive,
V1 , V2 > 0,

(1)

while the second derivatives are negative,

V11 , V22 < 0.

(2)

The consumer begins the first period with resources of b1 (think bank balances)
and income of y1 . Total resources are divided between consumption and end-of-period
assets a1 (assets after all actions in period 1):
b 1 + y 1 = c 1 + a1 ,
a1 = b1 + y1 c1 .

(3)
(4)

Balances at the beginning of period 2 are equal to end-of-first-period accumulated

assets a1 , rewarded by a gross interest factor R = (1 + r):
b2 = a1 R.

(5)

This is the dynamic budget constraint or DBC for this problem. A DBC links two
adjacent periods of time. A more comprehensive kind of constraint is the intertemporal budget constraint (IBC):
c1 + c2 /R y1 + y2 /R + b1 ,

(6)

which must be satisfied over an extended (multiperiod) span of time like a lifetime.
For various purposes, it is useful to keep track of human wealth ht , defined as
the present discounted value of future labor income (the operator Pt () denotes the
present discounted value of the variable from the perspective of the beginning of
period t through the end of the horizon),
ht = Pt (y)

(7)

h1 = y1 + y2 /R.

(8)

Because we have assumed (in (1)) that an additional unit of consumption always
yields extra utility, we can reach our first conclusion (as opposed to assumption) in
the model: Once the consumer has reached the last period of life, he will consume all
available resources:
c 2 = b2 + y 2 .

(9)

This means that the IBC will hold with equality (if it did not, utility could be
increased by consuming more in one or both periods). Thus, the IBC can be rewritten
as
c1 + c2 /R = h1 + b1 .

(10)

The general form that the IBC will take is that the present discounted value of
lifetime spending must equal the present discounted value of lifetime resources:
Pt (c) = Pt (y) + bt .

(11)

Substituting in the definition of b2 means that our problem can now be stated as:
max

V(c1 , c2 )

{c1 ,c2 }

c2

s.t.
= (b1 + y1 c1 )R + y2 .

(12)
(13)

Now we can write the problem as a Kuhn-Tucker multiplier problem, where the
maximand is:
V(c1 , c2 ) + (c2 (b1 + y1 c1 )R y2 ) .

(14)

The first order conditions are:

V1 + R = 0
V2 =

(15)
(16)

and substituting (16) into (15) we get

V1 = RV2 .

(17)

This is the same condition you get when deciding between two commodities at a
point in time, where we can now think of R as the intertemporal price: How much of
good 2 (consumption in period 2) do I get in exchange for giving up a unit of good 1
(consumption in period 1).
Now suppose that the consumers utility is time-separable, and the felicity function
(felicity is the utility obtained in a single period of a multi-period problem) is the
same in both periods of life, so that
V(c1 , c2 ) = u(c1 ) + u(c2 )

(18)

where is a time preference factor that specifies how the consumer trades off utility
in period 1 against utility in period 2.1
From our assumptions (1) and (2) we know that the felicity function must satisfy
u0 (.) > 0
u00 (.) < 0,

(19)
(20)

and since the felicity functions are the same in both periods we have that
V1 (c1 , c2 ) = u0 (c1 )
V2 (c1 , c2 ) = u0 (c2 ).

(21)
(22)

Substituting these equations into (17) yields the Euler equation for consumption:
u0 (c1 ) = Ru0 (c2 ).

(23)

The Euler equation is a central result in intertemporal optimization theory, and

will be used again and again as the course progresses. It is therefore worth studying
carefully to be sure you understand it thoroughly.
To help obtain the intuition for why the Euler equation is necessary for optimality,
consider the following thought experiment. Designate c1 and c2 as the optimal levels
of consumption in this problem, the levels that solve the maximization problem under
some set of circumstances. Thus, the highest attainable utility is
u(c1 ) + u(c2 ).

(24)

Now consider reducing consumption by some small amount  in period 1, investing

that  so that it grows to R in period 2, and then consuming it in period 2. What
happens to utility?
Taking first-order Taylor expansions, the levels of first-period and second-period
utility are now
u(c1 ) u(c1 ) u0 (c1 )
u(c2 + R) u(c2 ) + u0 (c2 )R.

(25)
(26)

Now the difference between the maximum possible utility and the new situation is
given by
u(c1 ) + u(c2 ) [u(c1 ) u0 (c1 ) + (u(c2 ) + u0 (c2 )R)] = u0 (c1 ) u0 (c2 )R. (27)
But it must be the case that (27) is approximately equal to zero. To see why,
suppose it were a negative number. That would mean that moving from the original
situation with {c1 , c2 } = {c1 , c2 } to the new situation with {c1 , c2 } = {c1 , c2 + R}
resulted in an increase in utility. But we assumed that c1 , c2 were already the utility1

Paul Samuelson (1937, 1958) introduced the discounting of future utility into the problem.
See Frederick, Loewenstein, and ODonoghue (2002) for a comprehensive review of the stillcontroversial topic of time discounting.

maximizing choices, which clearly could not be true if adjusting c1 downward by 

and c2 upward by R increased utility. Similarly, if the expression were positive, then
utility could be increased by doing the opposite (i.e. increasing consumption in period
1 by  and reducing it in period 2 by R). Thus, in either case if the expression is
not zero, we have a contradiction to the assumption that c1 and c2 are the utilitymaximizing choices.
To make further progress, it is necessary to make more specific assumptions about
the structure of the utility function. The most common assumption is that utility
takes the Constant Relative Risk Aversion form,
 1 
c
,
(28)
u(c) =
1
with marginal utility
u0 (c) = c .

(29)

Consider equation (23) with CRRA utility,

c
= Rc
1
2
c2 /c1 = (R)1/
c2 = (R)1/ c1 .

(30)
(31)
(32)

Now note that this equation allows us to calculate the intertemporal elasticity of
substitution as the change in the ratio of the log of c2 /c1 to the log change in the
intertemporal price R:

 



c2
d
d
log
=
log(R)1/
(33)
d log R
c1
d log R
= 1 .
(34)
Next note that from (32) we can calculate the PDV of lifetime consumption from
the perspective of the first period of life as
P1 (c) = c1 + R1 c2


= 1 + R1 (R)1/ c1 .

(35)
(36)

Now we can use the intertemporal budget constraint:

c1

Pt (c) = bt + Pt (y)


1 + R (R)1/ = b1 + y1 + R1 y2


b1 + h1
.
c1 =
1 + R1 (R)1/
1

(37)
(38)
(39)

Thus, we have solved the two-period life cycle saving problem for the consumption
function c1 relating the level of consumption to all of the parameters of the problem.

A common assumption (for simplicity, not realism) is that = 1, which is equivalent

to assuming that the utility function is logarithmic:2
 1 
c
lim
= log c.
(40)
1
1
In this case it turns out that we can simply substitute = 1 into the solution for
consumption, obtaining


b1 + h1
.
(41)
c1 =
1+

2 Graphical Analysis
The classic graphical analysis of this problem is shown in figure 1.
The top figure depicts a situation in which all of the consumers lifetime income
is earned in the first period of life. The budget constraint in the initial situation,
associated with a Low R, yields an optimal consumption choice labeled as point A
where the budget constraint is tangent to the indifference curve. When the interest
factor is increased to the High R situation, the optimal consumption choice moves
to C.
Note first that if all income is earned in the first period of life, an increase in
the interest factor is unambiguously good for the consumer - the set of consumption
possibilities is strictly larger.
Second, the movement from A to C can be decomposed into two parts: an income
effect AB and a substitution effect BC.

Call the low and the high interest factors respectively R and R.
The income effect is the answer to the question Suppose we wanted to change
but we
lifetime value by the same amount as it is changed by going from R to R,
wanted to achieve this change in value at the initial interest factor R. Supposing we
gave the consumer enough extra initial resources to achieve the change in value, how
would their consumption allocation change?
In order to relate this back to the algebraic analysis above, it will be useful to
rewrite lifetime value as a function simply of initial resources and the interest factor
(taking y1 , y2 and other parts of the problem as given):
V (b1 , R) = u(c1 (b1 , R)) + u(c2 (b1 , R))

(42)

Using this function, the income effect is obtained as the value of b1 in the equation

V (b1 + b1 , R) = V (b1 , R).

The substitution effect is the answer to the question, Staying on the new indifference curve, how much does the allocation of consumption change as a consequence of

See math fact [CRRALim]in MathFacts.

 This is captured in the movement

the difference in interest factors between R and R?
from B to C.
Note that the income and the substitution effects on c1 are opposite in sign. A
higher interest factor gives consumers the incentive to substitute future for current
consumption (c1 is lower at point C than at B). But a higher interest factor also gives
consumers the ability to consume more in both periods. Whether c1 rises or falls in
response to the increase in interest factors will depend on the relative magnitudes of
the income and substitution effects.
The lower figure shows a similar experiment, with the sole difference that the
consumers lifetime resources are exclusively concentrated in period 2.
In this case, the period 1 consumer must borrow against future income in order
to consume anything. An increase in interest factors is therefore unambiguously bad
(the available set of consumption choices is strictly smaller).
The optimal choice again moves from point A to point C. However, we now
decompose the movement into three parts. The first part is called the human wealth
effect. It captures the fact that the present discounted value of lifetime resources
P1 (y) is smaller when interest rates are higher; the magnitude of the change in human
wealth is depicted on the horizontal axis of the figure. The human wealth effect is the
consequence that an equivalent change in lifetime resources would have in the absence
of any change in interest factors. So the human wealth effect takes the consumer from
point A to point D.
Notice that once we have computed the human wealth effect, if we treat point
D as the starting point of our analysis, the remaining analysis is identical to that
which causes
for the upper figure: We can increase the interest factor from R to R,
the equilibrium point to change from point D to point C, a movement that can be
decomposed into an income effect DB (analogous to the income effect AB in the
original analysis) and a substitution effect BC.
I should note that the terminology here is a modification (refinement) of the
terminology often employed in micro textbooks, where the income effect is defined
in a way that would incorporate both what I am calling the income effect and what
I am calling the human wealth effect.
The reason to make this distinction is that it is important to distinguish between
effects on behavior caused by the fact that the discounted value of future income
is changed, and effects caused by the fact that the income that will be earned on
savings is different. Summers (1981) vigorously made the point that in standard life
cycle models, the quantitative magnitude of the human wealth effect dwarfs the size
of either the income or the substitution effects, because for most people most of their
lifetime income is in the future.

Figure 1 Fisher Figure Analysis

C2
Income: 8Y1 , 0<

High R

Income Effect: AB
Substitution Effect: BC
Total Effect: AB+BC=AC

Low R

Y1

C1

C2
Y2
Low R

Income: 80, Y2 <

HW Effect: AD
Income Effect: DB
Substitution Effect: BC
Total Effect: AD+DB+BC=AC

High R
A

DH

C1

References
Fisher, Irving (1930): The Theory of Interest. MacMillan, New York.
Frederick, Shane, George Loewenstein, and Ted ODonoghue (2002):
Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review, Journal of Economic
Literature, 40(2), 351401.
Samuelson, Paul A (1937): A note on measurement of utility, The Review of
Economic Studies, 4(2), 155161.
Samuelson, Paul A. (1958): An Exact Consumption-Loan Model of Interest with
or without the Social Contrivance of Money, Journal of Political Economy, 66(6),
467482.
Summers, Lawrence H. (1981): Capital Taxation and Accumulation in
a Life Cycle Growth Model, American Economic Review, 71(4), 533544,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1806179.