We merge detailed household level expenditure data from older households with historical local weather information. We then test for a heat or eat trade off: do houseolds cut back on food spending to finance the additional cost of keeping warm duing cold shocks? We find evidence that the poorest...

Standard economic theory implies that the labelling of cash transfers or cash-equivalents (e.g. child benefits, food stamps) should have no effect on spending patterns. The empirical literature to date does not contradict this proposition. We study the UK Winter Fuel Payment (WFP), a cash...

This paper examines trends in household consumption and saving behaviour in each of the last three recessions in the UK. We identify several dimensions along which the most recent recession (the so-called 'Great Recession') has been different from those that occurred in the 1980s and 1990s....