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Household Inequality and the Consumption Response to Aggregate Real Shocks

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Abstract

The drop in output and consumption that occurred during the Great Recession has been large and prolonged. Figure 1 displays per capita U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) between 1985 and 2016 and highlights the large drop in both consumption and output that occurred starting in 2007 and its parallel shift compared with the previous trend. In this article, we ask why consumption has dropped so much and has been recovering so slowly. We also ask to what extent household inequality before and after the Great Recession interacted with the recession itself to generate such a large and persistent drop in consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Gene Amromin & Mariacristina De Nardi & Karl Schulze, 2018. "Household Inequality and the Consumption Response to Aggregate Real Shocks," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue 1, pages 1-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedhep:00030
    DOI: 10.21033/ep-2018-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Ying’ai Piao & Meiru Li & Hongyuan Sun & Ying Yang, 2023. "Income Inequality, Household Debt, and Consumption Growth in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Juan I Martín-Legendre & Pablo Castellanos-García & José M Sánchez-Santos, 2019. "Housing and financial wealth effects on consumption: Evidence from the Spanish Survey of Household Finances," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(3), pages 1930-1940.
    3. Caterina Astarita & Salvador Barrios & Francesca D'Auria & Anamaria Maftei & Philipp Mohl & Matteo Salto & Marie-Luise Schmitz & Alberto Tumino & Edouard Turkisch, 2018. "Impact of fiscal policy on income distribution," Report on Public Finances in EMU, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission, pages 71-131, January.
    4. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    5. Mark Setterfield, 2020. "Managing the discontent of the losers," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 78(1), pages 77-97, January.
    6. Gregor Semieniuk & Emanuele Campiglio & Jean‐Francois Mercure & Ulrich Volz & Neil R. Edwards, 2021. "Low‐carbon transition risks for finance," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    7. Daniel Cooper & María José Luengo‐Prado & Jonathan A. Parker, 2020. "The Local Aggregate Effects of Minimum Wage Increases," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(1), pages 5-35, February.
    8. Animashaun, Jubril & Wossink, Ada, 2024. "How do households cope during aggregate shocks? Evidence from the 2009–2015 oil crisis in Nigeria," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Marco D’Amico & Martina Fazio, 2025. "Modelling income risk dynamics in the UK: a parametric approach," Bank of England working papers 1129, Bank of England.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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