IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/nbr/nberch/12830.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Representing Consumption and Saving without a Representative Consumer

In: Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher D. Carroll

Abstract

The Great Recession confirmed a bedrock principle of modern consumption theory: It is impossible to explain aggregate spending behavior without knowledge of the underlying microeconomic distribution of circumstances and choices across households. National accounting frameworks therefore need to be augmented by "bottom up" measures that both (a) capture the microeconomic heterogeneity (in expenditures, income, assets, debt, and beliefs) in the population and (b) sum up to statistics that have a recognizable relationship to the aggregate totals that are already reasonably well measured.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher D. Carroll, 2014. "Representing Consumption and Saving without a Representative Consumer," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Economic Sustainability and Progress, pages 115-134, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12830.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jason DeBacker & Bradley Heim & Vasia Panousi & Shanthi Ramnath & Ivan Vidangos, 2013. "Rising Inequality: Transitory or Persistent? New Evidence from a Panel of U.S. Tax Returns," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 46(1 (Spring), pages 67-142.
    2. Claus Thustrup Kreiner & David Dreyer Lassen & Søren Leth-Petersen, 2014. "Measuring the Accuracy of Survey Responses Using Administrative Register Data: Evidence from Denmark," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 289-307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jonathan A. Parker & Nicholas S. Souleles & Christopher D. Carroll, 2014. "The Benefits of Panel Data in Consumer Expenditure Surveys," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 75-99, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Christopher D. Carroll, 2004. "Theoretical Foundations of Buffer Stock Saving," Economics Working Paper Archive 517, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    5. David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 2005. "Estimating Discount Functions with Consumption Choices over the Lifecycle," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000643, UCLA Department of Economics.
    6. Mr. Christopher Carroll & Mr. Martin Sommer & Mr. Jiri Slacalek, 2012. "Dissecting Saving Dynamics: Measuring Wealth, Precautionary, and Credit Effects," IMF Working Papers 2012/219, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Carroll, Christopher D. & Slacalek, Jiri & Tokuoka, Kiichi, 2015. "Buffer-stock saving in a Krusell–Smith world," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 97-100.
    8. Ralph Koijen & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Roine Vestman, 2014. "Judging the Quality of Survey Data by Comparison with "Truth" as Measured by Administrative Records: Evidence From Sweden," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 308-346, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jonathan A. Parker & Nicholas S. Souleles & David S. Johnson & Robert McClelland, 2013. "Consumer Spending and the Economic Stimulus Payments of 2008," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2530-2553, October.
    10. Greg Kaplan & Giovanni L. Violante, 2014. "A Model of the Consumption Response to Fiscal Stimulus Payments," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(4), pages 1199-1239, July.
    11. Richard Blundell & Luigi Pistaferri & Ian Preston, 2008. "Consumption Inequality and Partial Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1887-1921, December.
    12. Mark Aguiar & Mark Bils, 2015. "Has Consumption Inequality Mirrored Income Inequality?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(9), pages 2725-2756, September.
    13. Bruce D. Meyer & James X. Sullivan, 2009. "Five Decades of Consumption and Income Poverty," Working Papers 0907, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago.
    14. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1, October.
    15. Jonathan A. Parker & Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, 2009. "Who Bears Aggregate Fluctuations and How?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 399-405, May.
    16. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    17. Charles Himmelberg & Christopher Mayer & Todd Sinai, 2005. "Assessing High House Prices: Bubbles, Fundamentals and Misperceptions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 67-92, Fall.
    18. Milton Friedman, 1957. "Introduction to "A Theory of the Consumption Function"," NBER Chapters, in: A Theory of the Consumption Function, pages 1-6, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Jason M. DeBacker & Bradley T. Heim & Vasia Panousi & Ivan Vidangos, 2011. "Rising inequality: transitory or permanent? New evidence from a U.S. panel of household income 1987-2006," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2011-60, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    20. Orazio P. Attanasio & Erich Battistin & Mario Padula, 2010. "Inequality in Living Standards Since 1980," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 25159, September.
    21. Jason DeBacker & Bradley Heim & Vasia Panousi & Shanthi Ramnath & Ivan Vidangos, 2013. "Rising Inequality: Transitory or Persistent? New Evidence from a Panel of U.S. Tax Returns," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 44(1 (Spring), pages 67-142.
    22. P. Pailot, 2011. "Theoretical foundations," Post-Print hal-00812721, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bram De Rock & Bart Capéau, 2015. "The implications of household size and children for life-cycle saving," Working Paper Research 286, National Bank of Belgium.
    2. Michael M. Batty & Jesse Bricker & Joseph S. Briggs & Alice Henriques Volz & Elizabeth Ball Holmquist & Susan Hume McIntosh & Kevin B. Moore & Eric R. Nielsen & Sarah Reber & Molly Shatto & Kamila Som, 2019. "Introducing the Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-017, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Michael Batty & Jesse Bricker & Joseph Briggs & Sarah Friedman & Danielle Nemschoff & Eric Nielsen & Kamila Sommer & Alice Henriques Volz, 2021. "The Distributional Financial Accounts of the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 641-677, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher D. Carroll & Edmund Crawley, 2017. "Comment on "When Inequality Matters for Macro and Macro Matters for Inequality"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2017, volume 32, pages 76-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Jonathan A. Parker & Nicholas S. Souleles & Christopher D. Carroll, 2014. "The Benefits of Panel Data in Consumer Expenditure Surveys," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 75-99, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Christopher D. Carroll & Edmund Crawley & Jiri Slacalek & Kiichi Tokuoka & Matthew N. White, 2020. "Sticky Expectations and Consumption Dynamics," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 40-76, July.
    4. Brant Abbott & Giovanni Gallipoli, 2022. "Permanent‐income inequality," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(3), pages 1023-1060, July.
    5. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2014. "Earnings and labour market volatility in Britain, with a transatlantic comparison," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 201-211.
    6. Iourii Manovskii & Dmytro Hryshko & Moira Daly, 2015. "Reconciling Estimates of Earnings Processes in Growth Rates and Levels," 2015 Meeting Papers 1395, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Laurens Cherchye & Thomas Demuynck & Bram Rock & Mariia Kovaleva & Geoffrey Minne & Maite De Sola Perea & Frederic Vermeulen, 2024. "Poor and wealthy hand-to-mouth households in Belgium," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 909-934, September.
    8. Christopher D. Carroll, 2012. "Implications of Wealth Heterogeneity For Macroeconomics," Economics Working Paper Archive 597, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    9. De Giorgi, Giacomo & Gambetti, Luca & Naguib, Costanza, 2020. "Life-Cycle Inequality: Blacks And Whites Differentials In Life Expectancy, Savings, Income, And Consumption," CEPR Discussion Papers 15182, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Guvenen, Fatih & Ozkan, Serdar & Madera, Rocio, 2024. "Consumption dynamics and welfare under non-Gaussian earnings risk," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    11. Andreas Fagereng & Martin B. Holm & Gisle J. Natvik, 2021. "MPC Heterogeneity and Household Balance Sheets," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 1-54, October.
    12. Greg Kaplan & Gianni La Cava & Tahlee Stone, 2018. "Household Economic Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 94(305), pages 117-134, June.
    13. Perugini, Cristiano & Hölscher, Jens & Collie, Simon, 2013. "Inequality, credit expansion and financial crises," MPRA Paper 51336, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Carroll, Christopher D. & Slacalek, Jiri & Tokuoka, Kiichi, 2015. "Buffer-stock saving in a Krusell–Smith world," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 97-100.
    15. Cappellari, Lorenzo & Jenkins, Stephen P., 2014. "Earnings and labour market volatility in Britain, with a transatlantic comparison," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 201-211.
    16. Daniel Lewis & Davide Melcangi & Laura Pilossoph, 2019. "Latent Heterogeneity in the Marginal Propensity to Consume," 2019 Meeting Papers 519, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Moira Daly & Dmytro Hryshko & Iourii Manovskii, 2022. "Improving The Measurement Of Earnings Dynamics," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(1), pages 95-124, February.
    18. Rong Hai & Dirk Krueger & Andrew Postlewaite, 2020. "On the welfare cost of consumption fluctuations in the presence of memorable goods," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 11(4), pages 1177-1214, November.
    19. Orazio Attanasio & Erik Hurst & Luigi Pistaferri, 2012. "The Evolution of Income, Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in The US, 1980-2010," NBER Working Papers 17982, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Orazio Attanasio & Erik Hurst & Luigi Pistaferri, 2014. "The Evolution of Income, Consumption, and Leisure Inequality in the United States, 1980–2010," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 100-140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12830. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.