Heterogeneity in Economic Shocks and Household Spending
Sebastian Devlin-Foltz and John Sabelhaus ,
FEDS Working Paper, Fiscal Studies 2016
July
2015
Abstract

Large swings in aggregate household-sector spending, especially for big ticket items such as cars and housing, have been a dominant feature of the macroeconomic landscape in the past two decades. Income and wealth inequality increased over the same period, leading some to suggest the two phenomena are interconnected. Indeed, there is supporting evidence for the idea that heterogeneity in economic shocks and spending are connected, most notably in studies using local-area geography as the unit of analysis.

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