Was the increase in income inequality in the US due to permanent shocks or merely to an increase in the variance of 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...

Using panel structural VAR analysis and quarterly data from four industrialized countries, we document that an increase in government purchases leads to an expansion in output and private consumption, a deterioration in the trade balance, and a depreciation of the real exchange rate (i.e., a...

The distribution of consumption in Moldova implies that changes in workers' remittances, migration, and energy prices could influence consumption and poverty rates in some unexpected and even counter-intuitive ways. Relatively well-off groups, rather than the poor, benefit most from remittances...