We use detailed micro data to document a causal response of local retail prices to changes in local house prices, with elasticities of 15%-20% across housing booms and busts. Notably, these price responses are largest in zip codes with many homeowners, and non-existent in zip codes with mostly...

In this paper, we show, using the consumer's budget constraint, that the residuals of the trend relationship among consumption, aggregate wealth, and labour income should predict both stock returns and housing returns. We use quarterly data for a panel of 31 emerging economies and find that,...

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this paper considers the mechanism by which changing house values impact U.S. household spending. The results suggest that house values affect consumption by serving as collateral for households to borrow against to smooth their spending. The...

It is widely claimed that housing wealth, as well as stock prices, have an impact on consumption and hence on aggregate economic activity. This paper presents a broad overview of the issues that arise in evaluating this claim in the context of recent research in behavioral economics. Particular...

Recent fluctuations of financial markets, especially, stock markets fluctuations, have revived the interest concerning the dynamics of real economic activity, namely, of private consumption. In this work, the role of stock market as a determinant of private consumption is analyzed, namely, by...

This paper provides new evidence on the housing wealth effect on consumption using household panel data. A key advantage in studying the Chinese housing market is the absence of the collateral channel, as households are prohibited from withdrawing housing equity. The results show that for every...