IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/28281.html

Macroeconomic Expectations and Credit Card Spending

Author

Listed:
  • Misha Galashin
  • Martin Kanz
  • Ricardo Perez-Truglia

Abstract

We examine how macroeconomic expectations affect consumer decisions, using an experiment with 2,872 credit card customers at a large commercial bank. In the experiment, participants are randomized into receiving expert forecasts of inflation and the nominal exchange rate. We find that forecasts significantly affect inflation and exchange rate expectations, but do not change spending or self-reported consumption plans as predicted by standard models of intertemporal choice. Results from a supplementary survey experiment suggest that consumers are sophisticated enough to anticipate nominal rigidities and reduce spending on durables for precautionary reasons, counteracting the effects predicted by standard models of intertemporal optimization.

Suggested Citation

  • Misha Galashin & Martin Kanz & Ricardo Perez-Truglia, 2020. "Macroeconomic Expectations and Credit Card Spending," NBER Working Papers 28281, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28281
    Note: IFM
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w28281.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Schomburgk, Lachlan & Belli, Alex & Hoffmann, Arvid O.I., 2024. "Less cash, more splash? A meta-analysis on the cashless effect," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 382-403.
    2. Niizeki, Takeshi & Hori, Masahiro, 2023. "Inflation expectations and household expenditure: Evidence from pseudo-panel data in Japan," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 308-324.
    3. Vod Vilfort & Whitney Zhang, 2023. "Interpreting TSLS Estimators in Information Provision Experiments," Papers 2309.04793, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    4. Lena Dräger & Michael J. Lamla, 2024. "Consumers' macroeconomic expectations," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 427-451, April.
    5. Carola Conces Binder & Rupal Kamdar & Jane M. Ryngaert, 2024. "Partisan Expectations and COVID-Era Inflation," NBER Chapters, in: Inflation in the COVID Era and Beyond, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Felix Chopra & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2025. "Home Price Expectations and Spending: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(7), pages 2267-2305, July.
    7. Heiner Mikosch & Christopher Roth & Samad Sarferaz & Johannes Wohlfart, 2024. "Uncertainty and Information Acquisition: Evidence from Firms and Households," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 375-405, April.
    8. Janet Hua Jiang & Rupal Kamdar & Kelin Lu & Daniela Puzzello, 2024. "How Do Households Respond to Expected Inflation? An Investigation of Transmission Mechanisms," CAEPR Working Papers 2024-004 Classification-D, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    9. Kuang, Pei & Luca, Davide & Wei, Zhiwu, 2025. "Ballots, Budgets and Bricks: Brexit and the Polarisation of Individual Economic Behaviours," MPRA Paper 125104, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Siye Bae & Sangyup Choi & Sang-Hyun Kim & Myunghwan Andrew Lee & Myungkyu Shim, 2025. "Can We Anchor Macroeconomic Expectations Across Party Lines? Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Working papers 2025rwp-255, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • E03 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Macroeconomics
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nberwo:28281. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.