全球智库信息集成服务系统(G2TT): On the Welfare Cost of Consumption Fluctuations in the Presence of Memorable Goods

G2TT

来源类型	Working Paper
规范类型	报告
DOI	10.3386/w19386
来源ID	Working Paper 19386
	On the Welfare Cost of Consumption Fluctuations in the Presence of Memorable Goods
	Rong Hai; Dirk Krueger; Andrew Postlewaite
发表日期	2013-08-29
出版年	2013
语种	英语
摘要	We propose a new classification of consumption goods into nondurable goods, durable goods and a new class which we call "memorable" goods. A good is memorable if a consumer can draw current utility from its past consumption experience through memory. We propose a novel consumption-savings model in which a consumer has a well-defined preference ordering over both nondurable goods and memorable goods. Memorable goods consumption differs from nondurable goods consumption in that current memorable goods consumption may also impact future utility through the accumulation process of the stock of memory. In our model, households optimally choose a lumpy profile of memorable goods consumption even in a frictionless world. Using Consumer Expenditure Survey data, we then document levels and volatilities of different groups of consumption goods expenditures, as well as their expenditure patterns, and show that the expenditure patterns on memorable goods indeed differ significantly from those on nondurable and durable goods. Finally, we empirically evaluate our model's predictions with respect to the welfare cost of consumption fluctuations and conduct an excess-sensitivity test of the consumption response to predictable income changes. We find that (i) the welfare cost of household-level consumption fluctuations may be overstated by 1.7 percentage points (11.9% points as opposed to 13.6% points of permanent consumption) if memorable goods are not appropriately accounted for; (ii) the finding of excess sensitivity of consumption documented in important papers of the literature might be entirely due to the presence of memorable goods.
主题	Microeconomics ; Households and Firms ; Macroeconomics ; Consumption and Investment
URL	https://www.nber.org/papers/w19386
来源智库	National Bureau of Economic Research (United States)
引用统计
资源类型	智库出版物
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.153/handle/2XGU8XDN/577061
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Rong Hai,Dirk Krueger,Andrew Postlewaite. On the Welfare Cost of Consumption Fluctuations in the Presence of Memorable Goods. 2013.