Recent research offers mixed results concerning the relationship between inflation expectations and consumption, using qualitative measures of readiness to spend. We revisit this question using survey panel data from the United States of actual spending from 2009 through 2012 that also allow us...

Eine neue Auswertung des Statistischen Bundesamtes ermöglicht erstmals einen Vergleich der Hauptauslöser von Überschuldung in Deutschland und Sachsen. Die Überschuldung ist im Freistaat im Vergleich zum Bundesdurchschnitt tendenziell weniger stark durch strukturelle Faktoren und geringfügig...

Many consumers below the top of the distribution of a representative population by cognitive abilities barely react to monetary and fiscal policies that aim to stimulate consumption and borrowing, even when they are financially unconstrained and despite substantial debt capacity. Differences in...

In a representative sample of new borrowers, access to lines of credit increases the spending of more liquid households permanently. Liquid consumers reduce their existing savings but do not tap into negative deposits, and hence do not raise debt. Through our FinTech bank setting, we elicit...

We show that, when forming expectations about aggregate inflation, consumers rely on the prices of goods in their personal grocery bundles. Our analysis uses novel representative micro data that uniquely match individual expectations, detailed information about consumption bundles, and...

We study the spending response of first-time borrowers to an overdraft facility and elicit their preferences, beliefs, and motives through a FinTech application. Users increase their spending permanently, lower their savings rate, and reallocate spending from non-discretionary to discretionary...

We document that a large fraction of a representative population of men—those below the top of the distribution by cognitive abilities (IQ)—barely reacts to measures of monetary and fiscal policy that aim at influencing their leverage and durable spending decisions. To the contrary, high-IQ...

How do households form their inflation expectations? We show the price changes individual consumers observe while shopping are a key determinant of their expectation for overall inflation. We use individual non-durable consumption choices in the Nielsen Homescan Panel to construct...