This paper investigates the potentially non-linear relation between households' indebtedness and their consumption … between 2010 and 2014 in Belgium, using panel data from the two waves of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Unlike … previous studies, we find a negative effect of households' indebtedness on their consumption, even in the absence of negative …

spending on consumer spending. Our consumption data come from household-level retail purchases in the Nielsen scanner data and … local non-durable consumer spending by $0.29 and local auto spending by $0.09. We translate the regional consumption … our incomplete markets model from models with complete markets. At the zero lower bound, the aggregate consumption …

introduction of an unfunded social security program will raise consumption even if all bequests reflect intergenerational altruism … earnings are uncertain, his future bequest is also uncertain and his consumption therefore rises more in response to an …