COST OF LIVING INEQUALITY DURING THE GREAT RECESSION

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Argente, David; Lee, Munseob
• 署名单位: Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; University of California System; University of California San Diego
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvaa018
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 913-952
• 关键词: prices; inflation; gains; index; cycle

摘要

We construct income-specific price indexes for the period from 2004 to 2016. We find substantial differences across income groups that arise during the Great Recession. The difference in annual inflation between the lowest quartile of the income distribution and the highest quartile was 0.22 percentage points for 2004-2007, 0.85 percentage points for 2008-2013, and 0.02 percentage points for 2014-2016. We find that product quality substitution and changes in the shopping behavior, margins mostly available to richer households, explain around 40% of the gap. Our evidence shows that not accounting for these differences in price indexes could lead to significant biases in the calculation of consumption and income inequality.