Robust and reliable measures of consumer expenditures are essential for analyzing aggregate economic activity and for measuring differences in household circumstances. Many countries, including the United States, are embarking on ambitious projects to redesign surveys of consumer expenditures,...

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...