This paper considers what role in-home barcode scanner data could play in collecting household expenditure information as part of national budget surveys. One role is as a source of validation. We make detailed micro-level comparisons of food and drink expenditures in two British datasets: the...

Prices of real and financial assets fell substantially in the UK during 2008-09. The fourth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) was in the field throughout this 'financial crisis'. We use these data and earlier ELSA waves first to document the effect of the crisis on the...

Over the Great Recession UK households reduced real food expenditure. We show that they were able to maintain the number of calories that they purchased, and the nutritional quality of these calories, by adjusting their shopping behaviour. We document the mechanisms that households used. We...

This paper suggests a method for estimating the distribution of discount rates using panel data on income and wealth. Using the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA), a representative sample of the English popularion over age 50, we general panel date on total consumption from the...

In this paper, we analyze the nature of intra-household allocations and commitment using unique panel data on individual-specific within-household consumption expenditures and on time used for leisure, market production and home production. Specifically we estimate a dynamic collective model of...

This paper studies the differential effect of targeting cash transfers to men or women on the structure of household expenditures on non-durables. We study a policy intervention in the Republic of Macedonia, offering cash transfers to poor households, conditional on having their children...

In this paper we document significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar. We explore several possible causes, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status,...

In this paper we document significantly steeper declines in nondurable expenditures in the UK compared to the US, in spite of income paths being similar. We explore several possible causes, including different employment paths, housing ownership and expenses, levels and paths of health status,...

Whether higher lifetime income households do save a larger share of their income is one of the longstanding empirical questions in economics that has been surprisingly difficult to answer. We use both consumption data and a new dataset containing both individual survey data on wealth holdings...

We estimate marginal propensities to consume from wealth shocks for Italian households. Large asset price shocks in 2008 underpin an IV estimator. A euro fall in financial or risky financial wealth resulted in cuts in annual total (non-durable) consumption of 5-9 (3.5-6) cents. There is evidence...