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The consumption response to positive and negative income changes

Author

Listed:
  • Bunn, Philip

    (Bank of England)

  • Le Roux, Jeanne

    (Bank of England)

  • Reinold, Kate

    (Bank of England)

  • Surico, Paolo

    (London Business School and CEPR)

Abstract

A set of newly added questions in the 2011 to 2014 Bank of England/NMG Consulting Survey reveals that British households are estimated to change their consumption by significantly more in reaction to temporary and unanticipated falls in income than to rises of the same size. Household balance sheet characteristics (including the presence of a savings buffer), concerns about credit market access and higher subjective risk of lower future income account for a sizable share of this spending asymmetry and explain significant variation in the marginal propensity to consume across households. Our findings have important implications for predicting the response of aggregate consumption to expansionary and contractionary macroeconomic policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Bunn, Philip & Le Roux, Jeanne & Reinold, Kate & Surico, Paolo, 2017. "The consumption response to positive and negative income changes," Bank of England working papers 645, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0645
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Corrado, Luisa & Silgado-Gómez, Edgar & Yoo, Donghoon & Waldmann, Robert, 2022. "Ambiguous economic news and heterogeneity: What explains asymmetric consumption responses?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Ampudia, Miguel & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Slacalek, Jiri & Tristani, Oreste & Vermeulen, Philip & Violante, Giovanni L., 2018. "Monetary policy and household inequality," Working Paper Series 2170, European Central Bank.
    3. Regis Barnichon & Davide Debortoli & Christian Matthes, 2022. "Understanding the Size of the Government Spending Multiplier: It’s in the Sign," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 87-117.
    4. Andreas Fuster & Greg Kaplan & Basit Zafar, 2021. "What Would You Do with $500? Spending Responses to Gains, Losses, News, and Loans [The Spending and Debt Response to Minimum Wage Hikes]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(4), pages 1760-1795.
    5. 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.
    6. Miguel Ángel Mendoza González, 2020. "Sensibilidad y asimetrías ante choques de ingreso en el consumo privado de México, 1995-2017. (Sensitivity and asymmetries of income shocks in Mexico's private consumption, 1995-2017)," Ensayos Revista de Economia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia, vol. 0(1), pages 21-58, May.
    7. Mosley, Max, 2021. "The importance of being earners: Modelling the implications of changes to welfare contributions on macroeconomic recovery," MPRA Paper 108620, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. 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.
    9. Yoo, Donghoon, 2019. "Ambiguous information, permanent income, and consumption fluctuations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 79-96.
    10. Pierre Emmanuel Weil, 2018. "Redistribution from the Cradle to the Grave: A Unified Approach to Heterogeneity in Age, Income and Wealth," 2018 Papers pwe433, Job Market Papers.
    11. Gianluca Cafiso, 2022. "Loans to Different Groups and Economic Activity at Times of Crisis and Growth," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(3), pages 594-623, June.
    12. Neri, Andrea & Rondinelli, Concetta & Scoccianti, Filippo, 2017. "Household spending out of a tax rebate: Italian “€80 tax bonus”," Working Paper Series 2099, European Central Bank.
    13. Hadiye Aslan, 2022. "Personal Financial Distress, Limited Attention," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 97-128, March.
    14. Jonathan A. Parker & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2017. "Reported Effects vs. Revealed-Preference Estimates: Evidence from the propensity to spend tax rebates," NBER Working Papers 23920, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Andrea Neri & Concetta Rondinelli & Filippo Scoccianti, 2017. "Household spending out of a tax rebate: Italian ��80 tax bonus�," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 379, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Sang-yoon Song, 2020. "Leverage, Hand-to-Mouth Households, and Heterogeneity of the Marginal Propensity to Consume: Evidence from South Korea," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1213-1244, December.
    17. Bernard, René, 2023. "Mental accounting and the marginal propensity to consume," Discussion Papers 13/2023, Deutsche Bundesbank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    MPC asymmetry; household balance sheet; heterogeneity; transmission mechanism;
    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
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

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