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

这项研究项目记录了关于家庭收入和消费的横截面事实，并根据调查结果建立了消费支出的动态模型。第一个项目使用美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，与非耐用消费品相比，耐用消费品的支出更分散于家庭，对收入冲击的反应更强。在实证结果的基础上，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。由于固定的调整成本适用于较大的调整，该模型可以很好地复制经验模式。第二个项目利用《家庭收支调查》和《全国家庭收支调查》的数据，记录了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，上世纪80年代收入分配的顶尾强劲上升，90年代末收入分配的尾部急剧下降。消费不平等的加剧程度不如上世纪90年代末的收入不平等。

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.