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Reported MPC and Unobserved Heterogeneity

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  • Tullio Jappelli
  • Luigi Pistaferri

Abstract

Panel data on reported marginal propensity to consume in the 2010 and 2016 Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth uncover a strong negative relationship between cash on hand and MPC. Even though the relationship is attenuated when using regression methods that control for unobserved heterogeneity, the amount of bias is moderate. MPC estimates are used to evaluate the effectiveness of revenue-neutral fiscal policies targeting different parts of the distribution of household resources.

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  • Tullio Jappelli & Luigi Pistaferri, 2020. "Reported MPC and Unobserved Heterogeneity," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 275-297, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:275-97
    DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180420
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    Cited by:

    1. Georgarakos, Dimitris & Kenny, Geoff, 2022. "Household spending and fiscal support during the COVID-19 pandemic: Insights from a new consumer survey," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(S), pages 1-14.
    2. Kozo UEDA, 2023. "Marginal Propensity to Consume to Two-Time Income Shocks," CIGS Working Paper Series 23-008E, The Canon Institute for Global Studies.
    3. Gert Peersman & Joris Wauters, 2022. "Heterogeneous household responses to energy price shocks," Working Paper Research 416, National Bank of Belgium.
    4. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Jappelli, Tullio & Pistaferri, Luigi & Rooij, Maarten van, 2021. "Heterogeneous wealth effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Bernard, René, 2022. "Mental Accounting and the Marginal Propensity to Consume," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264186, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Sumit Agarwa & Yongheng Deng & Quanlin Gu & Jia He & Wenlan Qian & Yuan Ren, 2022. "Mortgage Debt, Hand-to-Mouth Households, and Monetary Policy Transmission [Policy intervention in debt renegotiation: evidence from the home affordable modification program]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(3), pages 487-520.
    7. Andreas Dibiasi & Heiner Mikosch & Samad Sarferaz, 2021. "Uncertainty Shocks, Adjustment Costs and Firm Beliefs: Evidence From a Representative Survey," KOF Working papers 21-496, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    8. Crossley, Thomas F. & Fisher, Paul & Levell, Peter & Low, Hamish, 2023. "Stimulus payments and private transfers," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    9. Dutt, Satyajit & Radermacher, Jan W., 2023. "Age, wealth, and the MPC in Europe: A supervised machine learning approach," SAFE Working Paper Series 383, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    10. Bernard, René, 2023. "Mental accounting and the marginal propensity to consume," Discussion Papers 13/2023, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    11. Sala, Hector & Trivín, Pedro, 2021. "Reported MPC in the presence of debt," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    12. Radermacher, Jan W., 2023. "Mamma Mia! Revealing hidden heterogeneity by PCA-biplot: MPC puzzle for Italy's elderly poor," SAFE Working Paper Series 382, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    13. Kris Boudt & Koen Schoors & Milan van den Heuvel & Johannes Weytjens, 2023. "The Consumption Response to Labour Income Changes," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 23/1067, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    14. Savoia, Ettore, 2023. "The effects of labor income risk heterogeneity on the marginal propensity to consume," Working Paper Series 2866, European Central Bank.
    15. Anna Sokolova, 2023. "Marginal Propensity to Consume and Unemployment: a Meta-analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 813-846, December.
    16. Kozo UEDA, 2023. "Marginal Propensity to Consume and Personal Characteristics: Evidence from Bank Transaction Data and Survey," CIGS Working Paper Series 23-007E, The Canon Institute for Global Studies.
    17. Chanda, Areendam & Cook, C. Justin, 2022. "Was India’s demonetization redistributive? Insights from satellites and surveys," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. Milan van den Heuvel & Benjamin Vandermarliere & Koen Schoors, 2019. "The Asymmetric Response Of Consumption To Income Changes And The Effect Of Liquid Wealth," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 19/958, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    19. Nemeczek, Fabian & Radermacher, Jan, 2022. "Personality-augmented MPC: Linking survey and transaction data to explain MPC heterogeneity by Big Five personality traits," SAFE Working Paper Series 348, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    20. Surico, Paolo & Andreolli, Michele, 2021. "Less is More: Consumer Spending and the Size of Economic Stimulus Payments," CEPR Discussion Papers 15918, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

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