This paper sheds new light on the interactions between business cycles and the consumption distribution. We use … Consumer Expenditure Survey data and a factor model to characterize the cyclical dynamics of the consumption distribution. We … first establish that our approach is able to closely match business cycle fluctuations of consumption from the National …

(positive) impact on households' consumption (savings), even after we control for family income. We argue that people save to … consumption is stronger for poorer and younger people, and income inequality stimulates more education investment, which are …

transitory shocks? The implications for consumption and welfare depend crucially on the answer to this question. We use CEX … repeated cross-section data on consumption and income to decompose idiosyncratic changes in income into predictable life … evolution of consumption and income inequality well and delivers two main results. First, we find that permanent changes in …

This paper studies the transmission of wage shocks into consumption across families that exhibit unobserved preference … heterogeneity. Heterogeneity and preferences over consumption and family labor supply are nonparametric. I show that any moment of … the joint distribution of policy-relevant wage elasticities of consumption and labor supply is identified separately from …

on debt composition. Based on a simulation exercise, we find a limited effect of wealth shocks on consumption inequality …. An increase in stock prices tends however to slightly increase consumption inequality, especially at the top of the …

degree of insurance. This, in turn, contributes to persistent racial differentials in life-cycle consumption.Starting from … the same position in the consumption distribution Blacks end up in a lower percentile than Whites after a few decades …. This is particularly marked for those Blacks who start at the top of the consumption distribution, where Whites are much …

transitory shocks? The implications for consumption and welfare depend crucially on the answer to this question. We use CEX … repeated cross-section data on consumption and income to decompose idiosyncratic changes in income into predictable life … evolution of consumption and income inequality well and delivers two main results. First, we find that permanent changes in …

There is vast literature examining how households’ income and consumption change over the life cycle. These studies …

With 20 years of PSID data, we document persistent racial differentials in life-cycle consumption dynamics. Starting … from similar positions in the consumption distribution Blacks end up in lower percentiles than Whites. Education, income … the Whites to prevent them from falling in the lower part of the consumption distribution. …

transitory shocks? The implications for consumption and welfare depend crucially on the answer to this question. We use CEX … repeated cross-section data on consumption and income to decompose idiosyncratic changes in income into predictable life … evolution of consumption and income inequality well and delivers two main results. First, we find that permanent changes in …