On household consumption smoothing : Empirical analysis using household-level micro data and incomplete market models

本研究项目记录了家庭收入和消费的横截面事实，并根据调查结果开发了消费支出的动态模型。第一个项目利用美利坚合众国消费者支出调查的数据审查耐用消费品的支出。实证分析表明，耐用消费品支出在家庭中的分散程度更高，对收入冲击的反应也比非耐用消费品支出更敏感。基于实证结果，本文建立了一个具有借贷约束和耐用消费品库存调整成本的居民消费动态模型。由于有一个适用于大调整的固定调整成本，该模型可以很好地复制经验模式。第二个项目利用家庭收入和支出调查和全国家庭收入和支出调查的数据，记录日本收入和消费不平等的演变。自1980年以来，收入不平等加剧，1980年代，收入分配的上尾部分大幅上升，1990年代后期，下尾部分急剧下降。1990年代末，消费不平等的增加幅度不如收入不平等的增加幅度大。

This research project documents cross-sectional facts about household income and consumption and develops a dynamic model of consumption expenditure based on the findings. The first project examines expenditure on consumer durables using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey in the United States of America. The empirical analysis shows that the expenditure on consumer durables is more dispersed across households and more responsive to income shocks than that on nondurable goods. Based on the empirical findings, I develop a dynamic model of household consumption with borrowing constraints and costs of adjusting the stock of consumer durables. With a fixed adjustment cost that applies to large adjustments, the model can replicate the empirical patterns well. The second project documents the evolution of income and consumption inequality in Japan, using data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey and the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure. Income inequality has increased since 1980, with a strong rise in the top tail of the distribution in the 1980s and a sharp decline in the bottom tail in the late 1990s. Consumption inequality does not increase as much as income inequality in the late 1990s.