The downturn in economic activity in the U.S. that began in December 2007 (as determined by researchers with the National Bureau of Economic Research) has been noticeably deeper and has already lasted considerably longer than the prior two recessions - those beginning in July 1990 and in March...

The consumption of high-consumption households is more exposed to fluctuations in aggregate consumption and income than that of low-consumption households in the Consumer Expenditure (CEX) Survey. The exposure to aggregate consumption growth of households in the top 10 percent of the consumption...

We evaluate the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) by comparing the vehicle purchases and disposals of households with eligible “clunkers” to those of households with similar, but ineligible, vehicles. We find that CARS caused roughly 500,000 purchases during the program period and that the...