Intertemporal substitution is at the heart of modern macroeconomics and finance as well as economic policymaking, but a large fraction of a representative population of men – those below the top of the distribution by cognitive abilities (IQ) – do not change their consumption propensities...

Building on recent findings in psychology, we study the impact of subjective age identity (feeling younger or older than one's chronological age) on economic behaviors. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study we find: Individuals with a younger age identity have higher work engagement,...

Expenditure visibility—the extent to which a household's spending on a consumption category is noticeable to others—is measured in three new surveys, with ~3,000 telephone and online respondents. Visibility shows little change across time (ten years) and survey methods. Four different...

To be aware of the potential for energy savings in their homes, individuals need specific energy-related and financial knowledge. In addition, they also need the cognitive skills to apply this knowledge, for example when it comes to the calculation of the lifetime cost of household appliances or...

From 1998 to 2009 I find that the average time between U.S. households' grocery shopping trips has steadily increased from 4.7 to 6.2 days, and from 1998 to 2006 per capita monthly consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables has decreased from 130 to 112 oz. To understand these changes, a dynamic...

Households in the Nielsen Consumer Panel were surveyed about their 2008 Economic Stimulus Payment. In estimates identified by the randomized timing of disbursement, the average household's spending rose by ten percent the week it received a Payment and remained high cumulating to 1.5–3.8...

Households have decreased their grocery shopping frequency from once every 4.7 days in 1998 to once every 6.3 days in 2009. To understand this change, an optimal control model is developed of a utility maximizing household that chooses when to shop, how much to purchase, and their piece wise...

This paper investigates the presence and strength of internal and external habit formation in consumption, using monthly household data. The habit hypothesis is used to explain empirical regularities in macroeconomics and finance. Empirical studies based on aggregate data (macro-evidence) leave...

I show that conventional estimators based on the consumption Euler equation, extensively used in studies of intertemporal consumption behavior, produce inconsistent estimates of the effect of children on consumption if potentially binding credit constraints are ignored. As a more constructive...

Consumers with limited discretionary money face important trade-offs when deciding how to spend it. In the current research, we suggest that feelings of financial constraint increase consumers' concern about the lasting utility of their purchases, which in turn increases their preference for...