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Unemployment Expectations Jumping (Ss) Triggers and Household Balance Sheets

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  • Christopher D Carroll
  • Wendy E Dunn

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between household balance sheets consumer purchases and expectations We find robust empirical relationships between balance sheet measures and spending but we do find that unemployment expectations are robustly correlated with spending We then construct a formal model of durables and nondurables consumption with an explicit role for unemployment and for household debt We find that the model is capable of explaining several empirical regularities which are at best unexplained by standard models Finally we show that a loosening of liquidity constraints can produce a runup in debt similar to that experienced recently in the US and that after such a liberalization consumer purchases show heightened sensitivity to labor income uncertainty providing a potential rigorous interpretation of the widespread view that the buildup of debt in the 1980s may have played an important role in the weakness of consumption during and after the 1990 recession

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher D Carroll & Wendy E Dunn, 1997. "Unemployment Expectations Jumping (Ss) Triggers and Household Balance Sheets," Economics Working Paper Archive 386, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:jhu:papers:386
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Carroll, Christopher D & Fuhrer, Jeffrey C & Wilcox, David W, 1994. "Does Consumer Sentiment Forecast Household Spending? If So, Why?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1397-1408, December.
    2. Deaton, Angus, 1991. "Saving and Liquidity Constraints," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(5), pages 1221-1248, September.
    3. Christopher D. Carroll, 1997. "Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 1-55.
    4. John Y. Campbell & N. Gregory Mankiw, 1989. "Consumption, Income, and Interest Rates: Reinterpreting the Time Series Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1989, Volume 4, pages 185-246, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty

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