Does Home Production Replace Consumption Spending? Evidence from Shocks in Housing Wealth in the Great Recession

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Been, Jim; Rohwedder, Susann; Hurd, Michael
• 署名单位: Leiden University - Excl LUMC; Leiden University; Tilburg University; RAND Corporation; RAND Corporation; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_00794
• 发表日期: 2020-03
• 页码: 113-128
• 关键词: household production; time-use; retirement-consumption; allocation; prices; POLICY; substitution; ECONOMICS; equity; puzzle

摘要

Becker's theory of home production suggests substitutability between consumption spending and home production. Using panel data with detailed information on spending and time use, we analyze households' ability to replace consumption spending by home-produced counterparts. Keeping wages fixed and changing lifetime resources by the shock to housing wealth during the Great Recession, we estimate an elasticity of substitution that is consistent with a life cycle Becker model. However, we estimate that only about 11% of total spending is replaceable by home production, which, in contrast to prior literature, makes it unlikely that home production fully mitigates the consequences of wealth shocks to well-being.