We investigate the importance of aggregate and consumer-specific or idiosyncratic labour income risk for aggregate consumption changes in the US over the period 1952-2001. Theoretically, the effect of labour income risk on consumption changes is decomposed into an aggregate and into an...

Before the economic reform, China's per person consumption of dairy products was very low. However, the past two decades have seen a rapid increase in dairy production on one hand, on the other hand increase in consumer income as well as exposure to western culture; this has led many to predict...

The aim of the paper is to assess the role of the Italian Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) as an autonomous driving force of consumption decisions. We test for the presence of quot;rule of thumbquot; consumers as originally proposed by Cambell and Mankiw (1991), using sentiment measures...

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the relationship between consumers' climate and consumption, looking - respectively - at income-based indicators of confidence and at consumption expenditures disaggregated by durability. We find that confidence significantly contributes explaining consumption...

Using the Michigan Survey of Consumers, we provide evidence that consumers' beliefs about current and future aggregate durable expenditure predict expected returns. We rationalize this finding through an asset pricing model with recursive preferences over non-durable and durable goods and belief...

We study the role of consumer confidence in forecasting real personal consumption expenditure, and contribute to the extant literature in three substantive ways: First, we reexamine existing empirical models of consumption and consumer confidence not only at the quarterly frequency, but using...

Focusing on localized measures of bank health and economic activity, and renters as well as homeowners, this paper uses an innovative approach to identifying households likely in need of credit to investigate the effect on household spending of a deterioration in local-bank health. The analysis...

Over the last 15 years, the typical household has increasingly concentrated its spending on a few preferred products. However, this is not driven by "superstar'' products capturing larger market shares. Instead, households increasingly purchase different products from each other. As a result,...

We report on a series of economic decision-making experiments exploring how individuals make lifecycle consumption and saving plans when they face different income profiles. We find that for every income profile we consider, subjects on average over-consume in the early periods of life and...

This article is the first formal investigation of consumer attitudes that compares the forecasting power of the University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment and the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index. The authors find that measures available from the Conference Board have both...