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Does Job Insecurity Affect Household Consumption?

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  • Andrew Benito

    (Banco de España)

Abstract

The paper confronts a key implication of the precautionary model of saving/consumption, using micro-data on British households. The results provide support for the key proposition that job insecurity affects consumption. A one standard deviation increase in unemployment risk for the head of household is estimated to reduce consumption by 2.7 per cent. This effect is greater for the young, those without non-labour income and manual workers—for whom precautionary effects might be expected to be stronger a priori. Consumer durables purchases are also found to be inversely related to unemployment risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Benito, 2002. "Does Job Insecurity Affect Household Consumption?," Working Papers 0225, Banco de España.
    • Handle: RePEc:bde:wpaper:0225
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    Cited by:

    1. Fischer, Björn & Köhler-Ulbrich, Petra & Seitz, Franz, 2004. "The demand for euro area currencies: past, present and future," Working Paper Series 330, European Central Bank.
    2. Dickerson, Andy & Green, Francis, 2012. "Fears and realisations of employment insecurity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 198-210.
    3. Chou, Wan-Jung & Huang, Yu-Chia & Chang, Ching-Cheng, 2015. "Precautionary Intentions and Risk Perceptions: Empirical Evidence from the Victims of Typhoon Morakot," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205549, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Hatice Gokce Karasoy, 2015. "Consumer Confidence Indices and Financial Volatility," CBT Research Notes in Economics 1516, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumption; precautionary saving; job insecurity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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