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Stimulus Payments and Private Transfers

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  • Thomas F Crossley
  • Paul Fisher
  • Peter Levell
  • Hamish Low

Abstract

Private transfers can affect the spending response to stimulus payments, as those receiving income windfalls may transfer resources to other households in greater financial need. We report a survey experiment where individuals were asked how they would respond to a £500 payment, with a randomly selected subset of individuals explicitly told that all households would receive the same payments (a ‘public windfall’ scenario). This additional information increased MPCs by 11%. Reported transfer intentions in response to windfalls suggest that public payments crowd out private transfers, partly accounting for the higher MPCs in the public windfall case.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas F Crossley & Paul Fisher & Peter Levell & Hamish Low, 2022. "Stimulus Payments and Private Transfers," Economics Series Working Papers 964, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:oxf:wpaper:964
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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