Consumption Inequality and the Frequency of Purchases
Consumption Inequality and the Frequency of Purchases
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消费不平等和购买频率
DOI：
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发表时间：
2017
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Dmitri K. Koustas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Olivier Coibion;Y. Gorodnichenko;Dmitri K. Koustas
我们记录了自 1980 年以来美国购物频率的下降，并考虑了其对衡量消费不平等的影响。当家庭储存可储存商品（即库存行为）时，购物频率的下降将导致支出不平等的加剧（当后者以高频率衡量时），即使潜在的消费不平等没有改变。我们发现，最近记录的美国自 20 世纪 80 年代以来支出不平等加剧的大部分情况都可以用这种现象来解释。使用详细的支出微观数据（我们将其与俱乐部/仓库商店开业数据相关联），我们将购物频率的减少直接归因于俱乐部/仓库商店的增加。 （JEL D12、D31、D63、D91、E21）
We document a decline in the frequency of shopping trips in the United States since 1980 and consider its implications for the measurement of consumption inequality. A decline in shopping frequency as households stock up on storable goods (i.e., inventory behavior) will lead to a rise in expenditure inequality when the latter is measured at high frequency, even when underlying consumption inequality is unchanged. We find that most of the recently documented rise in expenditure inequality in the United States since the 1980s can be accounted for by this phenomenon. Using detailed micro data on spending, which we link to data on club/warehouse store openings, we directly attribute much of the reduced frequency of shopping trips to the rise in club/warehouse stores. (JEL D12, D31, D63, D91, E21)